Penguins in Watercolour

I've started my 'winter' themed lessons with my younger students, even though it (surprisingly) hasn't snowed here yet. Kids love penguins so I knew this project would be a hit with them.

I used one of the drawing lessons from Art Projects for Kids. Kathy always has amazing step-by-step drawing lessons that really help some students. I gave my Grade 2 students the option of using the drawing handout (after I demonstrated it to them) or to draw their own penguin. 

Once drawn, they outlined it in Sharpie then used watercolours to paint them. 

I love all the different personalities!

I think this is a Harry Potter penguin, haha!

Another Harry Potter penguin- with a wand!

Large Decorative Poppies

Posting these a little late for Remembrance Day (Nov 11th here in Canada), so sorry about that! 

Maybe use this idea for next year?!

I was inspired by THIS post on the wonderful Painted Paper website.

I was asked to make decorations for our school's Remembrance Day assembly. I wanted something large and simple- effective and 'eye-popping' enough to decorate a gym. I also left this until the last minute so needed something fairly straightforward so a couple of my classes could 'mass produce' them, haha! Luckily my Grades 4-6 students seemed to really enjoy making them.

I have them for an 80 minute period- each student made between one and two large poppies during that time. There is some waiting time while the petals dry.

On 11 x 17 photocopy paper I traced two large hearts- these were the petals. I made a ton of photocopies of these as each students needed to paint 6 hearts/petals (3 sheets per student).

They used tempera pucks/discs for these. 

We ran out of room in my small drying rack fairly quickly so spread them out onto the floor to dry.

Once dry, cut out 6 hearts. Glue these together into a poppy shape using white glue.

For the centers, I used the same sort of style that was shown on the Painted Paper website.

I traced circles onto black construction paper and cut up small squares of black tissue paper.

Cut out the circle and cut a fringe around the outside edges. 

Glue onto poppy.

Then scrumple up the tissue paper and glue onto the black paper.

Pretty nice but not finished yet!

Make sure students write their names on the back.

For some reason I wanted to varnish these- I felt it made them a bit sturdier and just 'nicer' looking overall. I hate the dry texture that tempera pucks leave. They're so convenient to use with large classes but the chalky finish bothers me. However varnishing them is totally optional.

I watered down some 'modge podge' type varnish and painted all the poppies 

(a teacher on her break came and helped me, thank god, as it took forever!)

Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of them in the gym for our assembly, but we used clear packing tape loops on the back to stick them to our painted cinder block walls. They stayed up for the entire 45 minute assembly and were very easy to take down and didn't affect the wall finish.

Spooky Branches

This was a super messy project but well worth it, in my opinion! 

I found the lesson HERE on the Elle & Lou blog and it gives great directions. 

Instead of charcoal, we used chalk pastels for the background

Grade 6 students started out by tracing a circle for the moon, then blending different dark tones of chalk pastel (including black) to create a moody night sky. 

The desks (and floor! and students!) were covered in chalk pastel!!

The next class students drew on a tree branch- this was really difficult for alot of them! I was actually surprised- even after I demonstrated it for them, quite a few struggled, so next time I teach this I will have them draw a practice branch first. Then they painted the branch using black tempera paint.

For the final step, they highlighted the tops of the branches with white chalk.

Frankenstein's Monster Portraits

Here are some pics from last October. My Grade 2's made Frankenstein's Monster Portraits out of construction paper. I was inspired by THESE collages I found on Artsonia from Benfield Elementary School.

I gave kids a choice of orange or purple background paper. Then they went to town cutting and gluing and had a blast. Of course, many of the girls asked if they could make a 'girl version' so I told them about Frankenstein's (Monster's ) Bride. 

Lots of discussion here in terms of symmetry and how to create different types of facial expressions and moods. As well, of course, great practice for cutting skills.

I love how funny they all turned out!

Chalk Pastels and Glue Sunflowers

A classic, crowd-pleasing project. Grade 6 students 'drew' a large sunflower onto black paper using glue- we use Elmer's Clear Glue- makes for nice shiny black lines). 

The next class, they colour them in using chalk pastels. 

This is definitely messy, so leave extra time for clean-up!

Sunflowers in Oil Pastel & Paint

So it's been sunflowers galore this month with many of my classes in school. I go through phases of hating and then LOVING sunflowers. So this year is a loving year, haha!

I had my Grade 2 class create two different artworks using Van Gogh's Sunflowers series as inspiration. For the first one they used oil pastels (took about two- 40 minute classes to complete) and then they tried again using tempera cakes (again, about two- 40 minute periods to complete).

For the oil pastel version, students drew their still life's on large 12 x 18" coloured 

construction paper. 

I used THIS LINK from the Art blog "Teach Kids Art" for some tips and tricks. Thanks, Cheryl!

My younger kids use the Crayola brand oil pastels and they're pretty good- nice and chunky for smaller hands to grip onto. The one thing I don't like about them is that the wrappers come off them really easily.

The following week, students tried their hand again at sunflowers. This time, instead of drawing them in pencil first, they went in straight with a paint brush on 12 x 18" white paper.

I find tempera trays super convenient to use with larger classes. The colours aren't as vibrant as liquid tempera, but they last FOREVER and are easy for the kids to use and share. I teach them how to mix colours on their paper. Four kids share about 2 or 3 trays at each table, with a big ice cream pail of water in the middle. It works pretty good and clean-up is pretty pain free. TIP: spray your tempera cakes with water in the morning before class to get them damp and ready to use!

Some Grade 2 results: