Slammin' Salmon

This project was so much fun and the Kindergarten's loved making the RAGING RAPIDS!! I got this idea from the website deepspacesparkle. If you've never been there, I would highly advise checking it out. We drew the salmon with black crayon and using some white crayon for highlights and teeth. We creating raging rapids using white and blue paint on aqua paper. I showed them how to create swirls instead of just scribbles. Next, we glued the salmon onto the water and for a final touch, I added a couple swirls of glitter to each piece.

Name Plate Design

This is a project that I did first thing this year with my fifth graders. It was secretly, my clever way to learn all of their names quickly! We talked about font and letter styles. We sketched ways to create letters using objects and different styles. The names were done in pencil, outlined with sharpie and colored in with colored pencil. We discussed blending analogous colors to create a more bolder look.

Bet you couldn't guess I LOVE VAN GOGH!

I really like doing collabrotive projects with my students. Each person does their own thing and they enjoy that, but when I put the artwork together to make one big piece they are totally floored! I painted large pots for each class. Each student made a sunflower using crayons and watercolor. Once the flowers were done we added some beans for texture and construction paper for the stems and petals. They turned out great! Perfect for jazzing up the hallways.

Torn Paper Monsters

This is a lesson that I have done with second graders two years in a row now. It's great to do around halloween time. Not a halloween lesson, but fun to talk about monsters. First, we discuss all the possibilities as to what a monster could look like. I read the book When a monster is born. It...is...hysterical. The kids get such a kick out of it. Next I demonstrate how to rip all of the shapes using our hands, NOT SCISSORS. It's amazing how many students are hesitant to use their hands, some try to sneak scissors. Once they get into it and figure out how to create the shapes they forget about 'em. I talk about overlapping and lots of layering. This is what the second graders at Martin Luther King Jr. came up with this year!

Kindergarten is Krazy about Kandinsky!

This is a project I did with Kindergarten to practice our cutting. First, I read the book The Dot, they loved it! I made several different sized circle stencils. They traced one of each size onto construction paper and cut them out. I discussed overlapping from big to small then we glued the circles onto a square sheet of paper. I briefly discussed collaborative artwork and we displayed the final pieces as a whole.

Van Gogh Sunflowers

Another project I did with students over the summer at Kirkland Art Center. I love doing this project. It always turns out to be so beautiful. Oil pastel flowers with a watercolor wash for the background.

5th grade Starry Night

This is a project I did last year when I taught at Columbus. It was so much fun!!! I cut a poster of Starry Night up into approximately 125 squares. Each student got a square of the poster, a 5"x5" piece of black paper and oil pastels. We studied the squares as individual abstract pieces. The students knew they were going to be put together to make one piece, but they had no idea what it was going to be. I will admit that it took a lot of my time to get all these pieces in order and up on the wall, but the final product was so worth it. (Label each square of the poster, 1A, 2A, 1B, 2B, etc. then have the student write that number on the back of their piece of paper.) Took about 2-one hour classes.

Rumble in the Jungle!

This is a project I did over the summer with a group of students at the Kirkland Art Center in Clinton, NY. I had the students work on creating backgrounds first with oil pastel. We discussed what would be in the background in a jungle vs. our own backyard. Next, students used pencil to draw out animals, outlined them with sharpie marker, then filled them in using watercolors. We cut the animals out and glued them on. Took about 2 hours?

Finally getting out there!!!

Hello! I have been so inspired by other elementary art teachers that I decided to set up my own elementary art blog. I will be sharing my lessons, pictures of what my students are working on and other fun random art stuff going on in my life. I will be posting pictures of the first art projects of the year shortly!!!