This lesson took 3 art classes to complete (40 minutes each). 2nd graders followed along with me as I did a guided drawing for their bear on 12×12″ 80# white drawing paper in pencil. They added a ton of texture for the fur with sharpie, then they used some of their math skills to create their patterns in the sweaters!
Read more on all of this below students artwork, to see my step-by-step photos on how we created our bears!
I love all the different expressions!
Here’s how I demonstrated to students on how to draw the bear!
When kids were ready, I gave students dice and a pattern sheet that I created where each pattern was labeled by a number.
I posted this up on the board for kids to see when they rolled their dice for their patterns in their sweaters. Where it says “your choice of a pattern” they could select one from the sheet to draw, or create their own.
These are my 3 teacher examples above
Here’s some photos of students creating their awesome bears!
Lesson inspiration from Britt Curley and @2art.chambers (instagram account)
How adorable are these bears?! We used liquid watercolors and salt for the background, then a guided drawing of the polar bear and black oil pastel for shading! Read below students artwork to see how we created them with step-by-step pics!
DAY 1
On the first day of this 2 day lesson, students painted their background sky for the polar bear.
I put out bowls of turquoise and magenta liquid watercolors and bowls of kosher salt. 3rd graders watched me do a quick painting demo under the doc camera first, reviewing the wet-on-wet painting technique. First applying only water to the top half of their 12×18″ 80# white drawing paper, then adding whichever color paint they want first to the wet areas on their paper. Kids always love seeing how the paint spreads and feathers outward when doing wet-on-wet!
I encouraged students to paint randomly, and let the two colors merge here and there. If they created somewhat of a stripey effect with the two colors, I showed them how to brush on only water between the two stripes to help blend them together and blur the lines a bit more.
They loved watching the variety of lavender and purple hues develop when the turquoise and magenta paint mixed!
Once half the paper was painted and while still wet, students sprinkled salt over that area creating a salt resist technique! 3rd graders remembered this technique when they created the 3D Water lily last year in 2nd grade. Once dry, the salt crystals leave behind white areas that resemble snowflakes in the sky. For our 3D waterlilies project, the salted areas resembled light reflecting off the water background for the waterlily.
Once half of the paper was painted and salted, they wet the other half with just water and repeated painting and adding salt to the remaining half. Working on half the paper first, ensures the area is still wet enough for the salt. If the paper is too dry (the paint has dried up and the paper isn’t wet enough) the salt has nothing to absorb to create the snowflake effect.
Paintings were set aside to dry until the following art class.
Once dry, I brushed off all of the salt on students paintings and flattened them under a pile of heavy books. Here’s a few students painting’s that have been brushed off and flattened and are ready for the polar bear!
They ALL turned out beautiful, but I LOVE the way the salt created those interesting marks at the top in this one!!
DAY 2
3rd graders followed along with me while I did a guided drawing of the polar bear on 12×18″ 80# paper. Here are step-by-step photos that show how I drew the bear with my students.
STEP 1: DRAW 2 RAINBOW LINES FOR THE BEARS FEETSTEP 2: DRAW 3 LINES WITHIN EACH PAW
STEP 3: DRAW ANOTHER SMALLER RAINBOW LINE IN BETWEEN THE TWO PAWSSTEP 4: DRAW A LARGE RAINBOW LINE FROM PAW TO PAW STEP 5: DRAW THE BEARS HEAD STEP 6: DRAW TWO CURVED LINES FOR THE EARS STEP 7: DRAW TWO SMALLER CURVING LINES INSIDE THE EARS STEP 8: DRAW A LARGE EGG SHAPE INSIDE THE HEADSTEP 9: DRAW 2 SMALL CIRCLES FOR THE EYESSTEP 10: DRAW AN UPSIDE DOWN TRIANGULAR SHAPE FOR THE NOSESTEP 11: DRAW THE LETTER “W” FOR THE MOUTH. DRAW A TINY CIRCLE IN THE RIGHT PART OF THE EYES. DRAW A LONG OVAL SHAPE ALONG THE TOP OF THE NOSE.
Once drawn in pencil, I showed students how to add the black oil pastel. First we traced over all our lines with the black oil pastel. Then colored in the eyes and nose except for the small shiny reflective parts, where it remained white, like below.
STEP 12: TRACE OVER ALL LINES THICKLY WITH BLACK OIL PASTEL. COLOR IN THE NOSE, EXCEPT FOR THE OVAL. COLOR IN THE EYES, EXCEPT FOR THE TINY CIRCLES.
Then using one finger, smudge the oil pastel, following the direction of the lines drawn for each area, creating shadows within the polar bears fur. The only areas you don’t smudge are in the polar bears eyes, nose and mouth.
Where the curve of the belly is, we drew a few curving lines with oil pastel and smudged a U shape to give him MORE chubby cuteness!
Then draw a straight horizontal line where the curve of the belly is on either side of the polar bear with pencil. This creates the snow the polar bear is standing on.
Once finished smudging, students cut out their bears. Cut following the horizontal line, then cut following the curve of the body of the bear and to the other horizontal line. Now the bear and the snowy ground are cut out as one piece.
Then glue the back with a glue stick, (especially around the edges), then glue onto the painting, lining up both papers edges!
Voila! I LOVE these polar bears so much!
This wonderful lesson idea is from @2art.chambers (with a few changes). Thanks LauraLee!
More 3rd grade polar bears will be added after winter break! Also STAY TUNED for new 2nd grade artwork– Coming very soon!!
Read below students artwork to see how we created them!
This lesson took 2 (40 minute) art classes to finish. A fun quick lesson right before the winter break! Students had so much fun creating them especially when adding flecks of white paint for the snowflakes with toothbrushes!
DAY 1
After reviewing what a landscape was, students drew 5 triangles on a sheet of 12×18″ 80# white paper with pencil. I encouraged them to draw them in various sizes. Students could use rulers if they wanted as well.
Once drawn, they went over their lines with a black colored pencil to darken their lines. This is so kids could see their lines better when cutting them out, after gluing down tissue paper on their triangles.
Then they glued colorful cut tissue pieces all over their triangles using watered down white school glue. Students overlapped tissue as they glued, making sure to cover all the white spaces within their triangles. It’s important here to apply thin layers of glue, then one tissue at a time, then add another thin layer of glue on top with their brush to make the tissue lay nice and flat.
I mentioned to students they could go beyond their triangles edges with tissue since we would be cutting them all out later on.
These were set aside to dry until the following art class.
DAY 2
Students cut out their snowy hills from white paper and glued onto a sheet of 12×18″ black paper with a glue stick.
Then cut out their triangle trees and glued onto their snowy hills with a glue stick.
Then for a final touch, dipped a toothbrush (packs of 5 at the dollar tree!) into watered down white tempera paint and using their thumb ran their thumb across the bristles (bristles pointing downward to their landscapes) flecking snowflakes all over! Messy for sure! But fun!
This
lesson took 2 – 3 (40 minute) art classes to complete.
DAY 1:
On a piece of black construction paper (cut to 6”x18”) Trace 6 bulbs using a bulb tracer with pencil. (I created these bulb tracers ahead of time from thin cardboard sheets found from the back of printmaking foam board packages-great way to recycle and it’s free!)
*BTW- I like to use Sax brand “Black Colored Art Paper” because of how saturated in color it is, and doesn’t have spotting or inconsistencies within the paper. Not trying to get any freebies with the company Sax, or saying other paper isn’t going to work for this! Just wanted to share my opinion!
Then outline each bulb first, using oil pastel, then fill in -pressing hard- so the color is more vibrant. Leave the rectangular base (bulb socket) black. Students can test out colors to see if they like the way it looks along the top where there isn’t a bulb -before coloring in their final bulbs.
For any
tidbits of oil pastel that gather up and leave a chunk on their paper, I just tell
students to shake their papers to get rid of them, so it’s less likely to get
smeared into other bulbs or on other students artwork when stacked together for
the following week.
Then
add a small white curved line near the top to make it look like it’s shiny and
reflecting light, a “cursive L shape” for the filament near the base, and 4
white straight lines in the bulbs base using a white oil pastel.
Finish the remaining 5 bulbs the same way, using whatever
colors you want (they can be all the same color or a mix with some the same
color, or all different colors).
Day 2:
Finish coloring in the 6 traced bulbs with oil pastel if
needed.
Then draw a wavy line in the middle of a piece of 12×18” black construction paper using pencil. Then trace over that line with colored oil pastel (it can be 1 color / or a line of a combination of colors)
Trace 6 bulbs along wire line where you want them with pencil using the bulb tracer again.
For each bulb tracing on the wire line, using a white CHALK pastel, draw a thick white line along your pencil line, on each of the bulb tracings. I tell my students to draw with their white chalk up and down overlapping the previous line to create a nice layer of chalk dust as they do this step. Do this with all 6 bulbs.
Then, smudge with your finger going outward (going away from the bulb and smudging in one direction) to create a glow effect!
Then using the same color CHALK PASTEL as each of your OIL
PASTEL bulbs—go over the same white line with colored CHALK pastel thickly.
Smudge outward again with your finger. Do all 6 bulbs with the chalk on the black
paper.
(To avoid blending colors, use a different finger for each color when smudging).
DAY 3:
Finish using the colored chalk pastels on the traced bulbs along the wire if needed. Cut out each colored OIL PASTEL bulb from the 6”x18” strip of black paper.
Each time you cut one out, glue the back of it using a glue stick, and glue down in place over the traced bulb with chalk smudges (glue down matching each bulbs color with chalk pastel smudges). I ask students glue them down immediately after cutting one out, just in case their bulbs won’t get mixed up with other student’s bulbs on the tables!
This was a fun, quick, 1 day lesson using just construction paper, scissors and glue sticks!
I reviewed with students the complementary colors, symmetry and positive/negative space before demonstrating how to create these colorful fun trees.
Students then chose their 2 colored construction papers (1 sheet pre-cut to 9×12″ and 1 sheet cut to 6″x9″), and drew half of a tree along the edge of their 6×9″ piece with pencil, like below.
I used sharpie for these photos so you could see my lines easier.
Then students cut out their half tree.
Setting aside the cut tree, glue down remaining paper onto one side of the 9×12″ sheet like below.
Take the 1/2 tree you first cut, and flip it over lining up the edges of the 2 papers like below. Don’t glue down this piece just yet!
Now draw another half tree (or any 1/2 shape!) along the straight edge like below!
Cut out THAT half shape….
And flip that piece over like below…
Glue down the remaining 2 cut pieces, so everything lines up at the tree top and tree stump’s edges.
To find out more about this lesson, and view photos of students creating their own Victorian homes, read below students finished artwork!
This lesson took about (6) 40 minute art
classes to complete. I think absolutely worth every class though! Students took
their time to carefully craft their unique house!
4th Graders learned what architecture is, learned about some of the common characteristics found within the Victorian architectural style (Gables, bay windows, fish-scale shingles, turrets, towers, front porches, gingerbread details, multiple chimneys to name a few), and then created a drawing of their own Victorian style house that included some of those elements!
We also reviewed the Elements of Art and how students would be utilizing 6 out of the 7 elements of art to draw their homes; Line, Shape, Color, Space, Texture, and Value.
Students also made the connection between art and math since we talked about acute and obtuse angles for the gables, as well as using rulers to draw any straight lines.
DAY 1
On the first day, I showed students a PowerPoint with photos of various Victorian homes, which pointed out these particular common elements.
Here are some of the slides I show my students from my Powerpoint.
Then I ask students to raise their hand and share what similarities they see that these two Victorian houses have.
Then I showed students a variety of Victorian house drawings students created from previous years, as well as my own examples. We also talked about how many of us noticed Victorian houses in the North Attleboro area, and how some students live in one or have relatives that do!
I asked students if they had any architects in their family, or if they knew of anyone who was one. Many students did, and it was great to hear so many fun stories about the connections they already have with architecture!
After that I demonstrated under the doc camera how to draw some of the Victorian elements. I showed them how to draw a bay window, fish scale shingles, turrets and towers, 3-D steps that lead to the front door, gables, and bricks (for chimneys or on the house).
Students then practiced drawing these elements on a double-sided worksheet. Students each received a “step-by-step” how to draw Victorian elements packet that I created to help them if needed.
DAY 2
First, I showed them what they needed to include in their drawing, and went over each item.
Then I showed them my Victorian handouts (with the descriptors) that they could use while drawing (as a reference)
and that they could use the same step-by-step how to draw sheets that they used when they did the practice sheets. I explained to not “copy” but to look at the various images for inspiration to create their own unique Victorian house and to be creative!
Then I did a demonstration drawing a Victorian house under the doc camera. I explained they could hold their paper vertically (explaining their house would be taller and less wide if they did), or horizontally (their house would be wider and less tall). I explained their house needed to be almost as large as their paper but leaving room around the edges and especially near the bottom to include the 3-D steps that would lead to their front door. I suggested to start drawing the gables first, drawing the rooflines working their way down.
I posted the goals for the drawing on the board again, and students passed out handouts, rulers and 9×12″ 80# paper and began drawing their own unique homes!
DAYS 3 – 6
Once students finished drawing their houses,
they carefully colored them in using colored pencils with any colors they
wanted.
I demonstrated how to color in the chimney’s
bricks (or other brick details within the house) using a variety of reds,
browns, white, tans, and pinks and suggested to stagger the same color just
like in real chimneys. And to color any stones with neutral colors; browns,
black, greys, tans and white.
CLICK Here to a link to download my FREEPRINTABLE step-by-step Victorian details drawing handouts on my Teachers Pay Teachers page as well as my own Victorian Architecture PowerPoint (which can also be printed out for students to use for reference in your classroom).
To view additional Victorian house drawings by 4th grade from previous years, click on “4th Grade Art Lessons” and scroll down.
Thank you so much for stopping by! I will be blogging about NEW art lessons later this week and next! Be sure to pop on by again real soon to check it out!
