Self-portraits with Personal Symbols-3rd grade!
Students! If you are looking for my YouTube Art Tutorial Videos you can
just click or tap HERE!!! OR, click on “art instruction videos” in my drop down menu!
Third graders at Amvet Elementary finished their awesome self-portraits with personal symbols inspired by the artist Frida Kahlo! They learned how to draw facial details, how to blend colors to best match their unique skin colors using oil pastels, and included 6 or more personal symbols! Students did an incredible job creating these!
Take a look for yourself below! Fun photos of kids creating are underneath their artwork!
To learn more about this lesson, and view additional artwork from previous years—click On “3rd Grade Art Lessons” in the drop down menu and scroll down!
3D Winter Mug —Art Video Tutorial!
Students in 3rd grade will be creating these fun 3D winter mugs soon!
I plan on showing this video to my students, before and during the creating process during art class. The video discusses the Elements of Art focusing on: Line, Shape, Color, Form and Texture. I also discuss perspective and the principle of art Variety, and share some tips when using oil pastels.
Parents, and art educators…..I would LOVE to hear some feedback! Email me at mfilmore@naschools.net
This is my 3rd art video tutorial I’ve made. To view other art video tutorials either select “Art Instruction Videos” under the menu list OR click here!
Thanks for checking out my blog!! Lesson inspired from Melanie LaBonte
MIXING PRIMARY COLORS!- 1st Grade
First graders had a blast mixing primary colors to create secondary colors!
After the mixing fun we watched a couple fun videos on primary colors! Students couldn’t get enough of these! We watched them more than a few times!
ITS ALWAYS A FAVORITE YEAR AFTER YEAR!
AMAZING ART IN THE WORKS! Series #2!
Parents and Students-
To give you a sneak peek into what kids will be creating in art, after returning from winter break, here it is! …
Everyone at ROOSEVELT Elementary will finish up their previous lesson before the break, (if needed), then start the Square 1 Art fundraiser drawings!
Then will continue onto the following lessons as AMVET (read below).
BTW–I have only received the Square 1 Art box for Roosevelt so far. Amvet Elementary will start on them once they arrive!
For students at AMVET ELEMENTARY….
1st Grade:
Mixing Primary colors to create Secondary colors
This is a 1 day lesson. Then in the following class, students will be creating “Mondrian Collages” using primary colors.
2nd Grade:
Finish Monet Inspired 3-D Water Lilies (2M and 2D)
If finished- “Catching Snowflakes” portraits are up next!
3rd Grade:
Finish “Self-Portraits with Personal Symbols” oil pastel drawings
THEN….. Create a “3-D Winter Mug”!!
(**PHOTO CREDIT OF 3-D WINTER MUGS ABOVE AND BELOW FROM MELANIE LABONTE-POIRER —VIA PINTEREST**)
This will be a new art lesson I’m trying out this year! I don’t have a teacher example of my own or students art to post yet– I’m super excited to try it though, and can’t wait to show my 3rd graders!!!! So fun!
4th Grade:
Finish “Victorian Houses”
Then, create “Wayne Thiebaud inspired Mixed-Media Donuts!”
Donuts Inspired by the amazingly talented Mrs. Cassie Stephens! Thanks Cassie!
Did I mention the sprinkles are created using three-dimensional puffy paint!?! This is one of my favorite lessons!!
5th Grade:
5th Graders will finish their “3-D OP Art Cone Drawings” if needed
Then….
Will start “Falling For Foreshortening” drawings!
Special Education will start a fun “Mixed-Media Sheep collage”
(photo above by “blps_art” via Instagram)
*This will be a new lesson I’m incorporating, and do not have a teacher example or students examples yet– Can’t wait to try it out!! How adorable are these bubble wrap sheep!!
To view more art lessons by grade level, click on the grade level under the drop down menu!
Thanks for stopping by!!
VICTORIAN ARCHITECTURE DRAWINGS! 4TH GRADE
4th Graders learned what architecture is, learned about some of the common characteristics found within the Victorian architectural style, and then created a drawing of their own Victorian style house that included those elements!
Students did a great job creating their own houses and I LOVE how unique each one is!
Visit my TpT store HEREHERE to download my 12 page hand drawn resource packet on this lesson to use in your classroom or at home!
This student just needs to finish coloring in 1 chimney!
Nearly finished and doing an amazing job!!
To Learn more about this lesson, lesson’s goals and see additional Victorian houses, Click HERE!
Also—ART EDUCATORS— FREE powerpoint lesson and step-by-step drawing sheets for this lesson, available to download and print HERE
OP ART -“3D PAPER CONE DRAWINGS”–5TH GRADE!
5th Graders knocked it out of the park with this lesson!! I’m super proud of their hard work!
Students really LOVED it too and couldn’t believe it could be created using just sharpies, and colored pencils. More on this below!
This lesson took about 5 (40 minute) art classes to complete.
ON DAY 1: Students were introduced to various OP Art by artists Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley, and learned what Op art was (Optical Illusion Art) with a quick slideshow of work.
Six straight lines that intersect at the same spot, were drawn ahead of time on 80# 10×10″ paper for each student with a ruler; Creating 12 “slices” in total.
After kids got their papers, I demonstrated under a document camera as they followed along with me for the first step.
Students then drew a series of concentric curved lines alternating the direction of the curve within each “slice”.
Once finished with that step, students labeled every OTHER slice with a “B” lightly in pencil, to mark that space as black.
This step helps speed things along as kids color in– (just locate the ones labeled “B”), AND reduces any potential mistakes while using Sharpie.
Once that’s all set, students then started tracing over the smallest slices labeled “B” in the center, using a extra fine point Sharpie, (so it wouldn’t bleed too much into the small white sections), then filled in.
As areas got larger, kids switched to a Fine Point Sharpie, (since it has a thicker tip), and colored in the rest.
These 2 steps took about 2- (40 minute) classes to complete.
ON DAY 3, I discussed the element of art VALUE with students and showed them how to create subtle value changes.
Then I demonstrated the next step —using a black colored pencil in the white areas to create shading and shadows, and a white colored pencil in the black areas to create highlights.
Before students started this on their own artwork, I had them practice first on black and white papers.
I explained to students it’s important to draw the lines close together.
It’s also key to press harder with the white in the center, and gradually get lighter and lighter as the white gets closer to the edges of each slice, leaving a bit of black showing along the sides.
Then, using the black colored pencil in just the white areas, they drew darkest along the sides and gradually pressed lighter and lighter towards the center—leaving the center strip white!
Students loved seeing the 3D effect start to emerge!!
Here is my step-by-step video tutorial on this lesson
This is my first you tube tutorial (eep!) I’ve ever created….This is all a bit daunting to me, so please be kind as I’m excited (and NERVOUS!) about creating art tutorial videos. But it’s a goal of mine as an educator to try it out, and my hope is to get better and better at it -eventually adding additional art tutorial videos in the future!
To see more 5th grade art lessons, click on the MENU icon and select 5th Grade art lessons and scroll down!
DIA de los Muertos skulls –3rd Grade
Many of my 3rd graders finished up their Day of the Dead skulls this week! They came out great!!
It was a little tricky photographing them being so reflective!
To create them, I first prepared all the kids sheets with tinfoil. I laid a sheet (shinier side facing down) on the table. Then glued a piece of 8.5″ x 11″ heavyweight tagboard with a glue stick all over with a thin coat of glue. It’s important to not have any globs of glue here so it won’t show on the tinfoil as bumps.
Then I flipped the tagboard over -putting the glue side down, and smoothed it all over with my hands. Then I glued the edges of each side of tinfoil. Then folded the edges onto it.
So that all four sides of extra tinfoil are glued and folded onto the tag.
Then flip it over to the tinfoil side.
I found 3 different images of skulls online and printed them out so the images were printed lighter (a grey outline rather than black). Students then chose an image and taped it to the tinfoiled tagboard with 1 piece of painters tape along the top.
Students then traced the image, pressing firmly with a dull pencil, to transfer the image.
Students LOVED this and were amazed when they saw their lines transfer to the tinfoil!
This tracing step took most of the 40 minute art class. Once finished tracing, students then colored in their image using colored sharpies.
The sharpies take about 20 seconds to dry, so be careful while coloring so you don’t smudge.
Students learned that Dia de los Muertos is a Mexican holiday and festival held from October 31st – November 2nd to remember and honor friends and family members who have died and is celebrated throughout Mexico and by people of Mexican heritage living in the United States.
My third graders LOVED this lesson and thought it was a lot of fun!
This lesson also ties in nicely to our NEXT lesson -(studying the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo and creating self-portraits with personal symbols inspired by her work using oil pastels! (you can view previous 3rd graders self-portrait artwork under the menu and scroll down!)
Next blog post later Saturday 10/28 on 2nd grade abstract self-portraits! One of my absolute favorite art lessons!!! Click under 2nd grade art lessons under the menu, and scroll down to view last year’s artwork!
Stay tuned!…
TISSUE PAPER PUMPKIN COLLAGES
Special needs students created these gorgeous pumpkin collages using liquid watercolor, tissue paper, glue, and liquid tempera paint!
On day 1 of the lesson, students traced a pumkin using a cardboard tracer onto 9×12″ 70# or 80# paper. They then glued on orange, red, yellow and pink squares of pre-cut tissue paper using a paintbrush and watered down glue. They brushed on a second layer of glue once a piece of tissue was placed on. They used a brown piece for the pumpkin’s stem.
On a second sheet of 12×18″ heavyweight tagboard paper, students painted a turquoise sky with concentrated liquid watercolor paint.
On day 2 of the lesson, students cut out their pumpkins and glued onto the sky painting using a glue stick. They then glued on cut strips of various green and yellow tissue paper for the grass using watered down school glue and a paintbrush.
For the final step, they sponged on leaves in the sky by lightly dipping a pre-cut sponge in the shape of a leaf into a plate of drizzled red, yellow and orange liquid tempera paint, then gently pressed onto the sky to create falling leaves!
1ST- 5TH GRADE SKETCHBOOKS!
In the beginning of every year I have all my students create their own sketchbook, that will be used periodically throughout the whole year.
Each grade has a different drawing lesson to create a cover for their sketchbooks. Sketchbooks will be used to free draw in if kids finish a lesson early, to practice drawing before creating a final version for a lesson, to copy down information that they’ve learned about a particular lesson, and to experiment in with various art materials.
5th grade – Superhero Sketchbook Covers
5th graders looked at a variety of superhero comic book cover illustrations and then came up with their own unique superheroes demonstrating their superpowers. They had a choice of creating sidekicks, whether they wanted to include a villain and created a background scene. Drawings were then outlined in black sharpie and colored in with a choice of marker or colored pencil or both.
I love this drawing lesson because it allows so much creativity! Each one is so unique!
AS YOU’LL SEE BELOW, SOME STUDENTS ARE STILL WORKING, BUT COULDN’T WAIT TO SHOW THEM! I WILL RE-POST THEIR FINAL VERSIONS ONCE COMPLETE LATER.
STUDENTS FILLED OUT A WORKSHEET ON THE FIRST DAY TO PLAN OUT THEIR IDEAS FIRST.
PHOTOS OF 5TH GRADERS WORKING ON THEIR SUPERHEROES!
***To view superhero sketchbooks from previous years, click on the menu button and select 5th grade art lessons and scroll down.
Up next!!!…..OP ART 3D CONE DRAWINGS!
4TH GRADE – INITIAL DESIGN WITH ANALOGOUS
COLORS
For this lesson, students created a tracer of their initials from manila tagboard using block letters. Students could draw their letters on the tagboard either stacked on top of one another, side by side, diagonally, and could flip them backwards.
Once cut out as one piece, they traced their initials at least 8 times, creating an interesting design and went over their lines with black sharpie.
They then drew a background design with pencil, and colored in only the background with markers using analogous colors, leaving their initials white so they popped from the colorful background.
PHOTOS OF 4TH GRADERS WORKING ON THEIR ARTWORK!
UP NEXT!…… VICTORIAN HOUSE DRAWINGS!
3RD GRADE- ART TOOL SKETCHBOOK COVERS
Third graders chose 1 art tool (they could choose from: scissors, hole punchers, staplers, tape dispensers, foam rollers, glue bottles, or paint bottles) and created observational drawings of their chosen tool from 4 different viewpoints (from the top, from the bottom, from the side, and from the front). Kids could also draw additional drawings of their tool once the 4 viewpoints were drawn and could draw some of them coming off the page or overlap some.
Once drawn in pencil, they outlined in sharpie and colored in using marker or colored pencils, or both.
3RD GRADERS WORKING ON THEIR ART!
(Students are currently working on their “Finish the Picture” lesson)
UP NEXT!…..DAY OF THE DEAD SKULL DRAWINGS ON TINFOIL!!
2ND GRADE- WARM/COOL HANDS WITH PATTERNS
Second graders created a drawing of their hand with patterns inside their hand and in the background and then colored in using warm colors inside just the hand and cool colors only in the background (or vice versa) with marker.
This student is still coloring in, but is doing such a fantastic job had to post it! Nice work Milo!
(2nd graders are now working on their “Abstract self-portrait paintings!”)
UP NEXT!….MONET INSPIRED MIXED-MEDIA 3D WATER LILY
1ST GRADE- LINES THAT WIGGLE DRAWINGS
First graders listened to the fun story “Lines That Wiggle” by Candace Whitman. We then looked around the room and did a line scavenger hunt with our eyes!
Students drew at least 8 loopy, overlapping lines with pencil. We talked about how it kind of looked like a rollercoaster! We also discussed how when lines connect, it creates a shape! Students then outlined all their lines with black sharpie, and colored in each shape created with marker!
(1st Graders are currently working on their “Pumpkin’s Starry Night” lesson inspired by Van Gogh!)
UP NEXT!….. “NOT SO SCARY SCARECROW” COLLAGE!
I am SOoo excited because I have SO many NEW awesome art lessons planned for the year that I KNOW the kids are going to LOVE!!
I cannot WAIT to get started on them! (There will be least 1 new lesson per grade) and can’t wait to show you!
Of course many of my previous art lessons will still happen because they are keepers and students love them as much as I do!!
Some new ones will start right away and some are coming up later on the year!! Stay tuned!!…..❤️
Best,
Mollie
ART is for EVERYONE!
LEAF BIRDS!
My special education classes just finished their super cute leaf bird collages inspired by Art with Mr. Giannetto (via Instagram)! Thanks for the idea Mr. Giannetto!
On day 1 They glued strips of brown paper for branches, applied yellow painted dots with their finger, and added leaves using crumpled tinfoil dipped in green paint.
On day 2 They glued their leaves for the birds body, added a triangle for a beak, and googly eyes and a feather to complete their collage!
Since the second part was only going to take a few minutes, we started another art lesson for the remaining time in class.
They stamped black lines and circles using cardboard and a plastic cup on 12×18″ paper. We talked about horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines as well as shapes (in this case; circles) and overlapping lines and shapes.
We looked at Kandinsky’s abstract artwork for inspiration.
In the following art class we will add paint to the shapes created to finish our masterpieces!
I teach 2 special education classes at one school in my art room and 1 class at another school off a cart. The classes are small (usually up to 4 or 5 kids) with AMAZING paraprofessionals that assist them while they create. Their ages can range from 1st-5th grade and they have varying physical and mental challenges.
When I plan lessons for these students I think about their ability and what they will feel successful at, what can I have them work on to improve their fine motor skills, speech, social skills, emotional processing and of course, what they will enjoy! A lot of the lessons are tactile, which are especially nice for my hearing impaired and visually impaired students.
Modifying the tools and techniques are important for these kids. Sometimes the para’s bring in special equipment like small easel boards that can mount onto the wheelchair or special sized scissors or electric cutting tools. I also offer large handle paintbrushes, wide pencils and sometimes have things pre-cut or use tracers to help them draw and collage together. Smaller items to glue or alter (like bending pipe cleaners for instance) also help students develop their fine motor skills.
Most of my students I see year after year in the same class…which makes it a bit tricky coming up with new lessons every year for them. Especially since most lessons are 1 day projects (at best, 2 day projects). I sometimes repeat lessons that are just way too awesome not to, but I try to switch up the art lessons so they don’t bring home the same projects year after year. That way they are learning new art concepts and techniques AND creating new art each time too!
I get so many awesome ideas from my fellow art teachers in my district, (love you guys!!) fellow teachers on Instagram, art teacher blogs, as well as on Pinterest. Oftentimes I’ll see a lesson for kindergarten or 1st grade and just modify it a bit. A BIG thanks to EVERY ONE of you AMAZING art teachers out there sharing your awesome lessons!! It’s so wonderful and helpful to have those great resources! I hope that my lessons help you out as well!
If you teach special needs kids too, what are some of you’re favorite art lessons?
Please respond by clicking on “no comments” directly under the title of this post or “comment” if someone has already commented.
To view previous student artwork with lesson descriptions for special needs scroll under my menu on the main page and select special education!
Some of my favorites I’ve taught are shown below! (all photos are of student artwork only)
Follow me at mammalovespeaches on Instagram for more elementary art lesson ideas!