Loving these SWEET owls by my 2nd and 3rd grade students! In the past, I’ve only taught this to my 2nd graders, but I never did the lesson last year- so I had 3rd graders do them as well.
This was a 3 day lesson (40 minute art classes each)
DAY1
I showed them step-by-step under the document camera how to draw the owl on a sheet of 9×12” 80# drawing paper with pencil.
DAY2
Then they colored them in (just the moon, owl, and branch with leaves) with crayons, making sure to press down hard as they colored. They could color in the owl with whatever colors they wanted . Then they added stars to the sky with a yellow crayon pressing hard, and outlined everything except the stars with a black crayon pressing hard as they outlined.
DAY3
Then they painted the sky black with watercolors going right over their stars, creating a crayon wax resist.
I love how they all come out so different even though they are all drawing the same thing!
Would you be interested in a YouTube tutorial on this lesson?
My first graders had so much fun creating these! It only took 2 (40 minute) art classes to make them too.
Day 1
First, I created these pumpkin, moon, and ghost template tracers made from heavyweight Manila tagboard. I created about 25 tracers each.
Students chose their tracer and taped it with a masking tape loop (I helped with that step) on 3 areas of the back of the tracer onto a sheet of white 80# drawing paper.
Then students splatter painted whatever colors they wanted on top of their paper using watercolors. I told them to cover their paper with a lot of splatterpaint, and to splatterpaint close to the edges of their tracer especially. This makes sure the image comes out clear once the tracer is removed.
Once finished, the paintings were put into the drying rack.
Day 2
I carefully took off the tracers on each paper (it’s a good idea to actually press the tape loops on a bit of cotton beforehand so the tape won’t be AS sticky and tear the paper) I learned that the hard way, as some of the tape loops tore their papers a tiny bit in some areas.
We talked about positive / negative space. If a student chose a moon tracer, they cut out a bat from black paper (that they traced a bat on using my tracer) and glued it on their painting.
Students then drew faces if they had a pumpkin or a ghost with a black sharpie marker to add final details!
Such a fun and quick lesson that my students LOVED! Lesson idea from @artsyblevs
LEARNING GOALS:
students can define and identify positive and negative space within their artwork
students can create artwork using various painting techniques
This was a lesson I did last October (2024) but I never added it to my website until now. The first 3 images from the top are my teacher examples, and the rest are by my students.
My students in grades K and 1st created these beautifully vibrant leaves for the fall trees I made on my schools bulletin board recently! It took just 1 art class (40 minutes) to create.
I did this a couple years back and I’m always SO impressed at how bright and vivid the colors come out! And how rarely any leaves end up being brown or muddy!
We used Roylco brand diffusing leaves (you can purchase these on Amazon in packs of 80 leaves -3 different leaf varieties). I’ll also share a pic of how I did the bulletin board one year with the leaves as a wreath for the holiday season below.
Kids colored on their leaf (1 per student) with any colors of the rainbow they wanted (plus teal and pink) with bingo daubers until the entire leaf was colored in. Before they colored, we talked about colors and discussed what two primary colors make secondary colors. I was VERY impressed with my kindergarten students knowledge on this!!
Once they finished coloring, I sprayed their leaf (while on top of a messy mat) with a water spray bottle (about 4-5 sprays) about 12” away from their leaf. Students loved seeing the water spread the ink and watching their colors blend!
After letting the leaves dry in the drying rack black veins were added using oil pastel, then I stapled them on the 3 trees I created earlier. I made them out of crinkling brown construction paper strips and stapling them together.
I love how the trees came out and how it brightens up the hallway for fall!
I’m planning on using the remaining leaves that didn’t fit on the trees, to decorate the edges of my second bulletin board for other “fall” artwork soon!
Here’s a photo of how I used the leaves a couple years ago for the winter holiday!
Thank you SOO very much for following my blog and visiting my website! I know I haven’t been posting on the regular lately but I definitely plan on it this year!!
I have lots of new art lessons that my students are currently working on and I’m EXCITED to share them with you very soon, so be sure to check back and check your email for updates!
Also please be sure to visit my YouTube channel, and subscribe (I was just checking my videos this morning and was surprised and happy to see that my OpArt drawing tutorial video has over 185k views!!!) for more art video tutorials and read-a-loud stories! And you can follow me on Instagram @mammalovespeaches for additional art lessons and ideas!
Thank you so much
This is my 13th year teaching art! 12th year at my current district and 13th year overall!
This lesson idea is from art teacher Lauralee Chambers @2art.chambers on Instagram
This was such a fun lesson to teach my 5th graders! It took about (3) 40 minute art classes to complete.
DAY 1
We discussed how we would be utilizing the elements of Art; Line, Shape, Color, Texture, and Value to create these paintings.
I gave students a double-sided sheet of various paintbrush drawings to use as a reference while drawing their paintbrushes.
Students drew at least 6 large paintbrushes on 12×18” 80# paper with pencil. In their drawings I asked that the following be included ; at least 2 of the brushes had to overlap one another, at least 2 be drawn diagonally, and at least 1 drawn so the bristles pointed downward. Students could add also their own brush details within the handles.
Once all drawn in pencil, students traced over their pencil lines with an ultra fine point black sharpie. I showed students how to use the straight edge of a scrap piece of paper to keep their sharpie lines for the bristles from going into their paintbrush handles.
DAY 2
Students finished drawing if needed, then used a black oil pastel to draw a thick line along only one side of each brush. Only on all the brushes left sides or only on all the brushes right sides. Then using one finger gently smudge the oil pastel going in the same direction to create a shadow.
DAY 3
On the final day students used watercolors to create the splatter effect. I showed them how to use a watercolor brush to apply the paint only halfway up each brush towards the tips, and then add only water on the ends a little to dilute the color and help spread the paint where it meets the paper. Then using a medium sized tempera brush, they dipped into the same paint color and then flicked the bristles close to their papers to splatter. They also used the watercolor brush to splatter paint as well by shaking it or tapping their brush handle against another one.
I absolutely LOVE how they all came out and students had a lot of fun creating them!
This lesson took about (4) 40 minute art classes to complete.
On day 1 I discussed with students the many different art careers out there available, then showed them a great video on all the different art related careers out there someone could do for inspiration for this lesson. I wish I could just post the video i showed my students for you here, but for some reason it wont let me embed the video from YouTube. If you search ”MHRD – Careers in Art” you can watch it there.
After the video students were shown a huge variety of various contemporary artists in my Google slides. Then, using their laptops, students logged into my art classroom in Google, and were able to review the slides of artists. Each slide showed 1-3 photos of their artwork, and a small description of the kind of artwork they created. I hyperlinked the photo of the artist to either their blog, their website, an article, or to Wikipedia about the artist.
From there, students took some time researching artists that intrigued them, then selected one artist to focus on.
Days 2-4 were spent thinking about that artists style, and/or what materials they used to create their art with and draw a picture related to and inspired by that artists work. Students looked at ceramicists, photographers, painters, illustrators, fashion designers, interior designers, architects, graphic designers, animators, installation artists, jewelers, video game designers, weavers etc. I also wanted to make sure I included just as many female artists as male artists and to include artists from a variety of cultural backgrounds.
Students then drew using pencil, colored pencils, markers and/or crayons.
On the final day, students filled out a sheet with questions on why they chose that artist and what facts they learned about their chosen artist. Students did such an amazing job on researching independently, and coming up with their own creations and drawing artwork inspired by their chosen artist! Students really enjoyed this lesson and I’m hoping doing this lesson will inspire them to research and learn about additional artists on their own time. I wish I took more photos of their artwork, but check out some of their work below!
This first grade lesson took about (2) 40 minute art classes to create.
Students first learned about the artist Sanford Biggers and we discussed his AMAZING artwork. We also discussed how we’d be utilizing the elements of art; Line, Shape, Color, and Texture to create these fun paper quilts.
DAY 1
After reviewing his artwork, students each received a sheet of 8.5” x 11” copy paper with a grid as seen in the photo below.
Then students colored in each corner with marker, and drew a pattern with black sharpie on the edges.
After that students colored in 8 sections with whatever color they wanted using marker.
Then they drew patterns in the remaining 8 sections with sharpie.
Then students drew ”stitches” with black sharpie all around each rectangle and corners.
DAY 2
On day 2 students cut all around the edges of their paper, creating fringe.
Then students crinkled up their papers into a tight ball and then carefully pulled it apart and repeated crinkling it into a ball and uncrinkling it about 12 times to create texture! Students were surprised they were told to crinkle up their artwork and were amazed that their papers had also shrunk!
This lesson took ( 2 ) 40 minute art classes to create.
Students learned about the artist Charles McGee and we discussed his artwork. We discussed how we’d be utilizing the elements of art, line, shape, and form to create our sculptures. Then students received a sheet of copy paper with 4 lines pre-drawn and photocopied for the class.
Then using a black sharpie marker, students drew a different pattern in each section, creating 5 sections.
DAY 2
Then on day 2, students cut out each section with scissors.
Students then flipped over each strip, and folded back the ends. They then glued the flaps with a glue stick and positioned the flaps on a piece of 8×8” white cardstock paper and pressed for 5 seconds. Students could place each strip wherever they wanted creating height by placing the flaps closer together, and then gluing on other sections on top of previous ones. They had a lot of fun creating these fun and interesting sculptures!
This fun flower lesson was created for my special education class. It’s a 2 day lesson and the materials needed were 3 coffee filters, watercolors, cupcake liners, pipe cleaners, glue sticks, tape and a paper straw.
First students wet the coffee filters down with water using a big paint brush. This allowed the coffee filter to lay flat and also helps absorb and spread drops of paint.
Students then used watercolor paint to paint on various colors of their choice over the entire coffee filter. These 3 filters were then set aside to dry.
On the second day, the filters were folded in half and students drew “bumps” all around the edge to create the petals. Each filter was cut a little smaller than the previous one. Then students glued each opened filter together in the center with a glue stick. A cupcake liner was then glued into the center of their flower. Then using a pipe cleaner, students created a spiral by bending and shaping with their hands. This spiral was then glued into the cupcake liner with a glue stick.
For the final piece, students chose their colored straw and taped it to the back of the coffee filters for the stem.
I just finished creating this new op art video tutorial for my 4th and 5th grade students and wanted to share! We will be starting this art lesson later next week. I plan on stretching this lesson out over (4) 40 minute classes. I created an OP Art video for this lesson a few years ago, when I first started making YouTube videos, but never liked how it came out and always wanted to recreate it. So here it is! Hope you like it and can use it for your art class, or if you’re a student, can draw along with me at home!
