Winter Cityscape

Supplies:
White or grey construction paper
White oil pastel
Pencil
Blue water color
Paintbrush

I love cityscapes and this project turned out to be really fun.  I got the idea from this book (which was one of my favorite Christmas presents this year... that and the awesome art calendar I got from my third grader in Mrs. Guerrero's class.  They worked hard on a lot of great art projects).

First, I talked to the class about reflections: where they see them, how they are made, and asked if they have ever seen reflections on a lake or river.

Next, we took a sheet of white construction paper, positioned it horizontally, folded it in half to get a long horizontal crease line in the middle of the paper.  We unfolded the paper and drew a thick solid line right on that crease to establish our horizon line. (The horizon line represents where the sky meets the flat earth). 

Then we drew a simple cityscape of rectangles and squares rising from the horizon line. (Ask the students to push firmly on the oil pastels to get a good, waxy drawing).  We talked about depth and perception and how it looks more realistic to draw the buildings almost as if they were growing out of each other rather than each individually.

*Note, if we'd had grey paper, it would have been easier.  The white oil pastel on white paper was a little hard to see.  I will work on getting some grey paper in our supply. 

After they had drawn buildings, they added stars, a moon, windows in the buildings, and other details.

Next, we folded the paper in half again, and rubbed the back side of the paper with a pencil. They need to rub hard to get the drawing to transfer to the bottom half of the paper.  When you open the paper, the drawing should have lightly transferred to the bottom half. 

Then, paint the top half of the paper with a dark blue watercolor.  The pastel will resist the paint.  Next, paint the lower half of the drawing with a lighter blue. 

The "resist" reflection showed up better on some than others, but they were still pleased with the outcome.

Nutcracker Series

This was a two-week project and the kids loved how it turned out.  I used this sketch from Art Projects for Kids and walked the kids through step by step directions of how to draw a nutcracker.  I used regular computer paper (8 1/2" x 11") cut in half length wise.  They drew the nutcracker on both pieces of paper (thus, a series).  Next, they outlined their drawings with thin, black sharpies.  This is as far as we got on the first lesson. 

Week two: We used watercolors for one of the nutcrackers and oil pastels on the second.  Then we pasted them on black cardstock because everything looks better when it is framed in black, right?  (I also tried drawing the nutcracker on black cardstock -with white colored pencil, and then colored in with pastels on the black paper.  It looked really nice).

The kids were so excited to take these home.

Fall leaf collage

Supplies:
White Paper
Watercolors
Construction paper: red, yellow, orange, brown
Scissors
Glue

I got this project idea from the Art Projects for Kids website.  (I love this website!)  Tomorrow we will be doing this with kindergartners and Friday with third graders. 

First, we will talk about collages and different kinds of things you could use to make a collage.  Next, we will paint a simple blue on top and green on bottom background.  While that dries, the older kids will cut out leaves.  (I am going to use colored construction paper rather than have them use watercolors for the leaves so we can finish it in one class period). 

For the kindergartners, I have precut the tree shape and leaf shapes.  We don't have as long of a lesson time with them, and I didn't want to run out of time.

Then we will glue it all together.  I will post pictures of their results later this week!

Silouette Landscape

Supplies:
Water colors
White Paper
Black Paper
Glue
Scissors

I recently saw these awesome sunset pictures hanging outside of Mr. Nelson's classroom.  Art volunteer, Meg Powell did these with his class, and I love them!  I found a similar lesson with instructions here.

It reminded me of the illustrations in one of my kid's favorite books, The Day the Babies Crawled Away by Peggy Rathman. 

(She also wrote Goodnight Gorilla, 10 Minutes till Bedtime, Office Buckle and Gloria.)

For our lesson last week with Mrs. Guerrero's class, I first read this book to the class and told them to play close attention to the illustrations.  Then we made our own landscape silouette pictures.

First, we painted the sunset with watercolors on white paper.  Since this was the week before Halloween, I had them stick to orange, purple, yellow and red to look more spookey.  However, this would be a really fun project any time of the year.  Rather than use spookey cutouts, you could do regular houses and trees.

While the watercolors were drying, I showed them how to draw some basic tree, moon, stars, gravestones, and bat shapes.  They practiced on scratch paper.  Then they drew their shapes on black paper with white crayon.  Next, they cut out the shapes.  Then we glued them on top of the watercolor when it was dry.

The results are really cool and somehow I accidently deleted all the pictures I took but this one!  (Argh!)

Coffee Filter Watercolor

Age group: K - 2nd
Supplies Needed:
Coffee filters (3-4 per student).  These are not available in the art supply room, but quite inexpensive
            and one package comes with a couple of hundred filters.
Bright Colored Markers
Scissors, crayons, paper.
Water
Glue


This was our last project of the year on the same day as our party.  Since it was one of the last days of school... and a party, we didn't have too much structure and instructions, just a lot of creative fun. 

Each student received 3-4 filters and colored them with makers.  They could do any designs, making sure to use a lot of color and not leave much white space. 

Next, we dripped 2-3 small drops of water on each filter and watched the magic as the colors expand and run together.  (We used small droppers that I own.  You could also use medicine droppers, or just have the students dip their finger in a cup of water and sprinkle the water on the filters, but make sure to only get 2-3 drops.  If you get to much, the filter will become so wet it may tear). 

After they dried for 5-10 minutes, the student's cut their filters into shapes, glued them to a background sheet, and colored details on the paper.  They turned out quite nice.

Flower vase/Still life

So... in getting ready for the new school year,  I realized there are a few projects from last year that I never posted!  Here we go:

Age Group: 1st grade and up
Supplies Needed:
White paper (any size will work, but I like to use larger than 8 1/2 x 11 on this project). 
Tempera paint
Watercolors

To begin this project, we first looked at famous works of art including flower vases. 

Van Gogh, Sunflowers

 Pablo Picasso,  Hand with Flowers

(The above works of art can be found in The Art Book, which is available for check out from Mrs. De St. Jeor in the Grovecrest Library.)

Next, the students folded their white sheets of paper in half vertically, pressed a crease to get a horizon line, and then unfolded the paper.  (The crease is still visible and helps them to judge where to draw things).  We then drew a line across the lower half of the paper to represent the table.   Next came a simple vase drawing using a pencil.  Then they could add flowers and designs in the vase with tempera paint.  This was the end of our first session.

The next time we met, they completed flower details and painted designs in the table cloth with tempera paint, and then painted the background with watercolors.  The finished projects are so unique and colorful. 

(Of course they would look a lot better if I ever remember to bring my real camera instead of  the camera on my phone which isn't great as you can tell.)

I love this one above.  He wanted to be different so he painted roses. Awesome.

The painting above was created by a first grader from a class I taught last year.  You can see how the same concepts can be taught to different grade levels.  Their interpretation will grow each year! 

If you have any questions, please let me know grovecrestart@gmail.com

Watercolor/Crayon Aquarium

Age group:  Any.  Older grades could add more details and color to the fish.


Supplies needed:
scratch paper
construction paper
crayons
water colors / water

I got this idea from a Sesame Street episode when they visited an art school. 

First, we looked at pictures of tropical fish from a book I checked out from the library.  We talked about the various colors and patterns of the fish.   Next, we practiced drawing fish on scratch paper.  (I made this handout below but decided it might be too confusing for second graders.  It might be helpful with older grades.  Feel free to use it if you'd like).

After they had finished practicing the fish, they drew 4-5 on construction paper and then colored them with crayons (making sure to press hard, using lots of bright colors).  We only used crayon on the fish and sea weed.  Next we used blue and/or green water colors (using lots of water and little paint) to cover the entire paper.  It was hard for some of the kids to paint over the fish they had just colored, but the water color on waxy crayon looks really neat.  I tried a full wash of green and then a second time with blue.  The paper ends up very wet.

Note* if the larger paintbrushes are available, they would make this step much quicker.  They were checked out when we did this project and the brushes that come with the water colors are so small, it took a while to cover the entire page. 

Last comes a magic trick: while the painting is still wet, we sprinkled salt all over the paper.  Leave the paintings to dry over night.  When they come back the next day, the salt has worked its magic and it looks like bubbles:

Sorry it is so blurry!

My second grader thought this project was so fun he wanted to do it again as soon as we got home.