Watercolour Birch Trees

The old classic birch trees watercolour landscapes creating using masking tape.

So, so popular with staff!!

We used regular masking tape and lint it using our clothing to make it less sticky. 

A cheaper alternative to painters tape. 

I posted detailed steps in my original post HERE.

 

Cubist Style Watercolour Paintings

This is a beautiful Cubist inspired watercolour project that my high school class completed last year.

I posted all the steps previously HERE.

They had to pick a theme and then draw a few objects related to that theme on watercolour paper/ Then they fracture the whole picture using a ruler. Within each section, they paint a gradation. 

Some finished paintings:

 

Tie Dye Snowflakes

This is a great one lesson activity that has beautiful results for all kids. 

I posted previously about these HERE where we used tempera pucks instead of liquid watercolours. 

Take a coffee filter, fold it in half three times, then cut it out like you would for a snowflake.

Wet it thoroughly with water, then paint it using liquid watercolours. 

Make sure to saturate it so it goes through all the layers. 

Let dry overnight. We put ours on scrap paper to dry and students write their name beside it. 

Carefully unfold and then you might need to flatten them under a heavy book. 

We hang ours in our classroom window and they look gorgeous!

You can also mount them onto white or black paper. 

 

Mini Ice Sculptures

 

We're in the midst of a big deep freeze where I live. Perfect time to show the mini ice sculptures my students made right before the winter break. I team taught this with a colleague who's an ice molding sculptor extraordinaire. He makes these at his home and they become quite elaborate and complex.

We asked students to bring in containers in which to mold their sculptures. Metal bunt pans and any flexible plastic disposable or foil containers work great. 

We cut fir tree branches, greenery and berries to add. We also provided beans and lentils for colour and texture. Throw everything in a container, add water and set outside to freeze! This was a messy undertaking and took some planning so we weren't dripping water everywhere in the school. 

We also had kids fill up balloons with water, add a long piece of twine deep into the balloon and then we tied them shut. 

We tied these to the trees in front of our school. Some kids added food colouring. They create lovely shapes when the balloon is peeled off the frozen form. 

Before:

After!

We unmolded the ice sculptures by dipping containers in hot water. 

They stayed outside to be admired.

A cople of weeks later, they've been mostly covered up by our recent snowstorms.

This is -35 degrees Celcius y'all (-31 F for all the Americans)!!