RESEARCHING A CONTEMPORARY ARTIST – 5th Grade

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!


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3D PAPER SCULPTURES – 1ST AND 2ND GRADE INSPIRED BY CHARLES MCGEE

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!

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COFFEE FILTER FLOWER

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.

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ART SHOUT OUTS #5!

HAPPY SUMMER BREAK EVERYONE!!

PHEW!

WE MADE IT!!!

I never would have thought this is how the school year would end, and I’m sure all you teachers out there (AND PARENTS!!) thought the same.

Our official last day of school was Monday June 22nd. Going into school on June 10th wearing a mask and gloves, to close out out my classroom for the summer and sort through supplies felt so surreal. It was like walking into a time capsule from that last day we were all there on Friday March 13th. Unfinished projects were still in the drying rack, my examples were still up on the board for the following day, and notes to myself on my desk were still there for the following week of March.

BUT….. we made it through! We all figured it out, and I’m very proud of my students and how they rose to the challenge with remote learning.

Here are the final “Art Shout Outs” from learning remotely during these past 3+ months of school closure. As well as a few pics from the last day of school’s 5th grade clap out celebration!

GRADES K-2 ELEMENTARY VISUAL ART ACTIVITIES: I CAN CREATE WITH: STICKS!

In this Google slide, students could watch a 6 minute video on the book “STICKS” written and illustrated by Diane Alber.

If you’ve never read this story to your students or kids, I highly recommend it. I have and love, many of her books. Her stories are great and help open up discussions about empathy, kindness, perseverance, and fitting in.

Amazon writes; “Sticks is a story that almost anyone can relate to. It’s about finding yourself in a situation that didn’t turn out like you expected and having your friends and family help you find he courage to pick yourself back up and persevere.”

Next to the video, we added 6 different photos of artwork created using popsicle sticks. From dragonflies, to rainbows and clouds, to bird feeders and people, animals and airplanes… kids were encouraged to create whatever they wanted, using sticks!

Below are some screen shots taken from a video sent to me from one of my 2nd grade students! He designed a really cool plane and decorated the sticks and paper for wings with markers.

Nick created this super sweet popsicle stick rainbow with clouds below!

Artwork by Nick D.

GRADES 3-5 ELEMENTARY VISUAL ART ACTIVITIES: I CAN CREATE MY OWN ART MATERIALS AND USE THEM TO PRODUCE ARTWORK

So for this slide, we included a 2 minute video link to watch the “science of art materials” to give kids a better understanding on how art materials are made, a simple recipe on how to make your own air dry clay, and then 3 short videos; how to paint with mud, paint with coffee, and how to make your own sidewalk chalk from home!

Students loved experimenting with creating their own art materials!

Owen R. Created his own coffee paint!
Brielle R. Created her own coffee paint as well!
Kelsey S. used mud for painting!

GRADES K-2 ELEMENTARY VISUAL ART ACTIVITIES: SUMMER FUN! SELECT ONE TO COMPLETE: ICE PAINTING, DRAW AN ICE CREAM CONE, CREATE YOUR OWN AIRPLANE!

For this slide we included the following; a 50 second video on ice cube painting, how to draw an ice cream cone in 9 simple steps, and a short video on how to make a paper airplane. This was the last week of art activity suggestions, and we wanted to keep it really simple, fun and summery!

Ice Cream by Praneeth J.
An assortment of ice cream treats by Sofia D.
Mint Ice Cream by Nick D.
Ice Cream by Anthony B.

Praneeth sent me another fun video on how he created his airplane and also a super fun slow-mo video on his plane and his brothers plane flying! Below are some screen shots taken from that video.

GRADES 3-5 ELEMENTARY VISUAL ART ACTIVITIES: ARTIST’S CHOICE! SELECT ONE TO COMPLETE! POINT OF VIEW LANDSCAPE, RE-DESIGN A LOGO, OR TAKE A VIRTUAL TOUR AT THE MET.

Point of view landscape- draw what you see when you look out your window! We included a pic of a landscape drawing as well as a seascape drawing in this google slide as examples.

Below is a drawing Taylor sent me of her viewpoint looking out her window to her back yard!

Point of view landscape artwork by Taylor M.

Re-design a Logo; We posted 7 different logos to look at in this section of the slide for ideas. Kids had the option of selecting one of those 7, or select one of their own, and to change the colors, image or font!

LOGO RE-DESIGN BY SAM D.
LOGO RE-DESIGN BY PRANEETH J.
LOGO RE-DESIGN BY JACOB B.
LOGO RE-DESIGN BY JORDAN R.
LOGO RE-DESIGN BY BRIELLE R.
LOGO RE-DESIGN BY KELSEY S.

Although I have no art to show for this art activity suggestion, the last activity choice was to go online and take a virtual tour at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for kids. Kids were asked to “hop in the time machine” for some interesting art exploration! Click on the link to check it out!

More lovely art sent to me from my students!

Artwork by McKenna Y.
Artwork by Katie L.

Artwork by Maggie S.
Chalk art by Sofia D.

And now for a few pics from the last day of school “5th grade clap out celebration”! …

To those of you reading this that aren’t teachers, students or parents from the North Attleboro school district, normally on the last day of school we line up the hallways inside the school, and all the 5th graders walk down the hall while teachers and staff clap, cheer and hi-five the kids to celebrate their last day at the school. Of course with Covid-19 and social distancing, that had to change. So all the teachers and staff lined up outside the school, 6 feet apart, wearing masks, while families drove by as we all cheered and clapped. It felt so nice to have positive closure for such a bizarre year. And of course it was so nice to see my 5th graders one more time before the school year was over. I’ll miss them!! If any of you guys are reading this, I wish you all the best of luck!! Keep creating, and please stay in touch!

Unfortunately, I forgot to snap pics at Amvet but managed to remember to pull out my phone at Roosevelt later that morning! Some pics below were taken by other staff as well.

Pic above taken behind the school at Roosevelt. Cars all parked here after the clap out to receive awards, t-shirts and yearbooks.
(above) The sign I made for the 5th grade celebration
Teachers signs for the 5th grade celebration
Amvet staff

I’m excited summer break is here, as I’m sure all of you are too!!

Enjoy, relax, and have fun!!

Looking forward to seeing you all in the fall!!

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ART SHOUT OUTS #4!

I can’t believe we’re winding down to the last couple of weeks of the school year! Just maybe 1 or 2 more blog entries of “Art Shout outs”!

Here’s round 4!

GRADES K-2 ELEMENTARY VISUAL ART ACTIVITIES: I CAN CREATE ARTWORK INSPIRED BY THE BOOK PERFECT SQUARE !

In this Google slide, students could view a YouTube video of their art teacher (myself, Kim or Sarah), reading the book Perfect Square by Michael Hall. It also showed steps on how to fold and cut a rectangular piece of paper to make it square.

Students were asked to change the shape of their square paper into whatever they wanted! Students could cut it, tear it, fold it, twist it, rip it, punch holes in it, etc. to transform their square in a creative way! I love their creations!

PERFECT SQUARE ARTWORK BY OWEN R.

PERFECT SQUARE ART BY NICK D.
PERFECT SQUARE ARTWORK BY PRANEETH J.

GRADES 3-5 ELEMENTARY VISUAL ART ACTIVITIES I CAN CREATE: MY OWN MANDALA!

This slide had 6 different mandala examples to look at, as well as a short 3 minute video on how to use the program to create your own mandala online. If you’d like to create your own mandala, click HERE.

My students told me they had a lot of fun creating their mandalas! They turned out amazing too!!

Mandala artwork by Shaurya T.
Mandala artwork by Nolan L.
Mandala artwork by Sam D.
MANDALA ARTWORK BY JORDAN R.
MANDALA ARTWORK BY MAYA M.
MANDALA ARTWORK BY MAYA M.
MANDALA ARTWORK BY AJ M.
MANDALA ARTWORK BY BRIELLE R.
MANDALA ARTWORK BY KELSEY S.
MANDALA ARTWORK BY CONNOR F.
MANDALA ARTWORK BY TAYLOR M.

GRADES K-2 ELEMENTARY VISUAL ART ACTIVITIES: I CAN CREATE A TREASURE MAP!

Grab a paper and pencil/marker to create a treasure map. Come up with creative names for places in your own house or backyard. Then go on a treasure hunt with your family! Don’t forget to add color to your map. To make your map look ancient, carefully crumple and uncrumple your map. 

In addition, we shared pictures of various maps with buried treasure, and directions on how to age their papers with tea or coffee to make it look like an authentic old map. We also included a 3 minute Youtube video for kids that explains the different parts of a map.

Check out these awesome handmade maps below my students created!

TREASURE MAP CREATED BY PRANEETH J.
TREASURE MAP CREATED BY SOFIA D.
TREASURE MAP CREATED BY NICK D.
TREASURE MAP CREATED BY OWEN R.

GRADES 3-5 ELEMENTARY VISUAL ART ACTIVITIES I CAN CREATE: AN ORIGAMI SCULPTURE!

Included in the Google slide, was a description about origami and its origins;

Origami is the art of paper folding, which is often associated with Japanese culture. In modern usage, the word “origami” is used as an inclusive term for all folding practices, regardless of their culture of origin.

Traditionally, it was believed that if one folded 1000 origami cranes, one’s wish would come true. It has also become a symbol of hope and healing during challenging times. 

As a result, it has become popular to fold 1000 cranes (in Japanese, called “senbazuru”).

Also included in that slide were 2 short videos on how to create an origami cat/dog (front and back), a flower, a link to check out additional videos to choose from, as well as how to fold and cut a sheet of rectangular paper to make it into a square sheet of paper.

Students had so much fun creating these, and my student Nolan L. sent me a fun video of his cat/dog below!

ORIGAMI BY SAM D.
ORIGAMI BY LEIA C.
ORIGAMI CRANE BY CHARITH E.
ORIGAMI BY CONNOR F.
ORIGAMI BY JOCELYN R.

ADDITIONAL ARTWORK BELOW BY NICK D.!

Hope you all enjoyed checking out what my students have been creating! Thank you everyone for submitting your art and keep up the awesome work!!

Stay tuned for another round of Art Shout Outs coming soon! Check below to catch up on all the previous Art Shout Outs 1-3!

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ART SHOUT OUTS! #3

Here is the latest batch of artwork from my students, who shared their beautiful creations from home and the art lesson activities!

Grades K-2 Elementary Visual Art Activities

 I can draw a pot of flowers:  Using a pencil, trace 3-4 circle shapes to begin your drawing.  Be sure to include the parts of a flower: stems, petals and leaves. Add a pot design at the bottom if desired, then add color!

Included in that Google slide were 4 pictures from start to finish showing steps on how to draw flowers using various sized circular objects for the center to the finished drawing with a pot. Also included were links to 2 short videos students could watch. One was about flowers; their importance and taking a closer look at the flowers parts, as well as a video on how to draw a flower and a flower pot. Here are some lovely flowers drawn by my K-2 students!

ARTWORK BY ABIGAIL M.
ARTWORK BY ANTHONY B.
ARTWORK BY OWEN R.
ARTWORK BY PRANEETH J.

Grades 3-5 Elementary Visual Art Activities

I can create an OP art drawing: OP Art is drawing an optical illusion. The way the lines are drawn, makes them appear to “pop out” or move. 

Included in this google slide were 3 drawings, one just as a pencil drawing so you can see the lines easier, and the other two colored in. In addition, students could watch a short 6 minute YouTube video showing kids how to create an Op art drawing as well!

My students did an awesome job creating their op art! Check them out below!

ARTWORK BY SHAURYA T.
OP ART DRAWING BY EVELYN E. (AS WELL AS HANDMADE WORRY DOLLS AND SOME COOL PAINTED EGGS BY EVEYLN AND HER BROTHER HARRY E.)
ARTWORK BY AIDEN J.
ARTWORK BY AJ M.
ARTWORK BY MAYA M.
ARTWORK BY KELSEY S.
ARTWORK BY ELLIE L.
ARTWORK BY DYLAN P.
ARTWORK BY BRIELLE R.
ARTWORK BY SAM D.
ARTWORK BY CONNOR F.

Grades K-2 Elementary Visual Art Activities

I can create: A portrait or self-portrait using a round (circle) shaped plate.

Included in this Google slide were a variety of portraits using plates to create the head, descriptions on the difference between a portrait and a self-portrait, as well as a 3 min. video on found object art plate faces. Check out the artwork below!

ARTWORK BY PRANEETH J.
ARTWORK BY OWEN R.
ARTWORK BY NICK D.
ARTWORK BY SOFIA D.

Bryce R. (below) created some super cool vehicles using plates and other materials! Very creative!

Grades 3-5 Elementary Visual Art Activities

I Can: Observe and record shadows. Draw the contour lines!

Included in this slide were photos of plants leaves casting shadows on paper with a close up pic of all the contour lines drawn of that leaf, pictures of various toys lined up with their fun shadows cast onto paper, and 2 short videos; one showing how to create a shadow drawing, and the other short video was the science behind lights and shadows.

My students had a lot of fun creating these!

Below is a series of pics of AJ ‘s awesome shadow artwork!

SHADOW ART BY SAM D.
SHADOW ART BY KELSEY S.
SHADOW ART BY KATIE L.
SHADOW ART BY ELLIE L.
SHADOW ART BY CONNOR F.
SHADOW ART BY BRIELLE R.
SHADOW ART BY DYLAN P.
SHADOW ART BY NOLAN L.

Additional artwork below!

A BEAUTIFUL ABSTRACT ACRYLIC POUR BY KELSEY S.
AN AWESOME PAPER SHAPE ROBOT BY KATIE L.
SUPER CUTE BOB FROGGY BY KATIE L.
AWESOME ABSTRACT PAINTING BY KAI M.
WONDERFULLY DRAWN ROOSEVELT LOGO BY RILEY R.
AWESOME ROBOT DRAWING BY LUCAS P.
BEAUTIFUL AND COLORFUL LIZARD PAINTING BY OLIVIA P.
FUN ART ROCKS BY LUCAS AND OLIVIA P.
AWESOME ELEPHANT DRAWING BY JORDAN R.

BELOW IS A COLLECTION OF AWESOME ARTWORK BY SOFIA D. !

I hope you all enjoyed checking out all the amazing artwork my students are creating!

I’ll be updating this blog post with any additional artwork I receive this week, and will be posting “Art Shout Outs #4” very soon! I can’t wait to see what they create next!

Scroll down to catch up on “Art Shout Outs #2 and #1” in case you missed it! Additionally, if you’re new to my blog, you can scroll up to my main menu and click on art lessons for grades 1-5 with photos of student artwork, lesson descriptions and learning goals, as well as check out my YouTube channel, play free online art games, and more.

I’d love to hear from you too, so feel free to email me any questions or comments anytime under “contact”.

Take care everybody and stay safe and healthy!

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A Note to my students

Dear students at Roosevelt and Amvet,

I miss you all!! ❤️

I hope that you and your families are all staying safe and healthy and are enjoying some imaginative, fun ways to create art at home!

I, along with the other two elementary art teachers of North Attleboro are hard at work coming up with creative, fun and engaging art activities that you and your families can try at home while school is closed.  Be on the lookout for these fun art activity suggestions! They will be posted on the NAPS extended learning webpage SOON. 

I’m also going to be creating some fun NEW step-by-step drawing video tutorials on my YouTube channel soon! I’ll blog these videos once they are filmed and edited and add them to my YouTube channel as well. 

I just added some new photos of students creating art. My “Students Creating Art” link can be found under the main menu of this blog. Check that out after reading this if you haven’t already! 

If you haven’t checked out my Art Games page, you can click on that link under my menu and play free educational art games as well! 

Students, Remember the “What should I draw?” jar in my art room that you could use if you finished an art lesson early?! I’ve JUST included a link to all my original “What Should I Draw?” jar drawing ideas. You can check out that same exact list of drawing ideas found in my jar, HERE! Feel free to copy and print out these for fun drawing ideas to use at home! The link is also in my menu of this website.

1st-5th grade students from both Amvet and Roosevelt North Attleboro Elementary schools- Please Feel free to Email me any photos of any art you’ve been working on while at home! I’d LOVE to hear from you and see what creative things you have been up to!!  My teacher email is mfilmore@naschools.net which is also listed in my contact page of this site.  

Below are some AWESOME 2nd grade Abstract Self-Portraits students finished creating at Roosevelt Elementary School before schools closed for the time being. I wish I took a photo and could share EVERYONE’S, but was only able to capture a handful. More about this lesson with students creating them below the artwork.

This fun self-portrait lesson combines art exploration in abstract art and color theory!

This lesson took (3) 40 minute art classes to finish.

On the first day of the lesson, students learned about abstract artwork and looked at a slideshow of artwork by various abstract painters (Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Joan Miro, Jackson Pollock and William de Cooning to name a few). We discussed how abstract art focuses mainly on lines, shapes, and colors.

ON DAY 1  After viewing the slideshow and doing a quick demo, students drew an abstract drawing using various lines, and shapes on 12×18″ medium weight tagboard. Students then went over all their lines with crayons being sure to press super hard (later on we would do a crayon wax-resist). They then filled out a short questionnaire with questions asking about their favorite things and things about themselves.

ON DAY 2 They painted their drawings using concentrated liquid watercolors creating a crayon wax-resist. Before painting we reviewed what the primary colors, secondary colors and warm and cool colors were. While kids worked, I took each students photo (which I later printed as a high-contrast black & white photo on printer paper).

ON DAY 3   Students glued their black and white self-portrait onto their painting. Then students cut out their pre-printed sentences into strips and added them to their paintings using a glue stick! 

Thank you Bridgette ( http://guerzonmills.com)  for the idea!

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post and check out other sections on this website for additional art resources and inspiration. And again, be on the lookout for some fun art activity suggestions you can try out at home that us elementary art teachers have created. These art activity suggestions will be posted on the NAPS Extended Learning district webpage soon. Awesome resources are available on that website for students/families to use already!

Stay safe and be strong!…….We will get through this!! 

I miss you all so much!!

💗Mrs. Filmore 

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NEW ARTWORK BY 1ST – 5TH GRADE!!

Each grade level has finished up another art lesson (or two!) since I last blogged, so…. I figured I’d just write a HUGE blog post on ALL grades!

I hope you enjoy reading and looking at all their beautiful artwork and fun photos of students creating them!! There’s a TON of photos!

Here we go!…..

1ST GRADE

MIXING PRIMARY COLORS TO CREATE SECONDARY COLORS!

In this quick 1 (40 min.) art class, first graders learned that the primary colors on the color wheel are red, yellow and blue. They also learned that these 3 colors cannot be created, and that they already exist! BUT if they are mixed in a certain way, they create the secondary colors (purple, green and orange)!

After demonstrating under the document camera on how to mix the primary colors, students each mixed on their own practice sheets.

They used liquid watercolor paints to mix within the circle on their worksheets. They loved seeing the colors appear like magic! And seeing their water cups change colors as well as they rinsed their brushes!

After creating the secondary colors, students watched a couple of fun, short stop-motion videos about the primary and secondary colors as seen below! They absolutely LOOOVED them and I think the jingle helps them remember better! They wanted me to play it a few times!

LOVE IS IN THE AIR! – 1ST GRADE

This fun 3 day lesson incorporates the elements of art; Shape, Color, Line, Form, and Texture! We also review overlapping, and crayon wax resist painting throughout the lesson.

Kids finished them up just in time before Valentine’s Day! I can’t wait to display them in the hall!

DAY 1: CREATE THE WARM TISSUE PAPER BACKGROUND

Students glued squares of warm colored tissue paper (reds, pinks, oranges and yellows) onto a sheet of 12×18″ tagboard using watered down glue. They glued a small area of the paper first with a paintbrush dipped into watered down white school glue, then laid down one piece of tissue, then apply another thin layer of glue on top. They repeated these steps for each piece to flatten the tissue out.

Students were encouraged to overlap as they glued pieces, and to fill up the entire paper.

DAY 2 – CONTINUE GLUING TISSUE / CREATE PLANE

Students continued gluing tissue until their paper was filled in entirely. Then they each received a sheet of 8.5 x 11″ medium weight tagboard with a pre-printed outline of a plane. (I drew the plane ahead of time and photocopied them).

Students drew a variety of lines and/or shapes using crayon, pressing hard inside their plane, leaving a bit of white showing.

Once colored to their liking, they painted over the entire plane using watercolors, creating a crayon-wax resist. Students could paint with whatever colors they wanted!

Planes were set aside to dry along with their tissue backgrounds until the next class.

DAY 3: ADD PLANE AND HEART!

I pre-drew a large heart with pencil on everyone’s paper beforehand with a line that starts at one side and goes off the paper on the other side.

I demonstrated how to pull gently on the cotton batting to stretch and thin it out and how to shape it with their fingers.

Students glued on the cotton batting for the plane’s smoke along the lines I drew for the heart using a glue stick, pressing down and counting to 5 each time as they pressed.

Once the heart was finished, they cut out their planes and glued using a glue stick to their tissue paper backgrounds.

Awesome job first graders!! I can’t wait to hang them up in the hallway by the Art room!

For one of my first grade classes we created them on a painted blue background instead!

FIRST GRADERS WILL START “MIXED-MEDIA ALPHABET SOUP” NEXT! You can type the lesson name into the search box to check out previous blog posts on that lesson or go onto the 1st Grade Art Lessons page and scroll down!

2ND GRADE

Catching Snowflakes Portraits – 2nd Grade

Second graders had a lot of fun creating these adorable drawings of people catching snowflakes on their tongues!! They did such a wonderful job, and I love how each student put their own unique spin on the final touches!

This took 3 (40 minute) art classes to complete.

To create them, I demonstrated under my doc camera how to draw the face looking up by drawing a small upside down “u” for the nose, then a large circle for the head near the middle of their grey construction paper.

Then they drew a large circle or oval shape for an open mouth, squares or rectangles for the teeth (here, kids could add spaces between teeth to show the person lost a tooth or teeth!), a letter “m” for the tongue, lines for hair (flying around from the winter wind), a scarf, and sweater or jacket.

Once all drawn in pencil, students colored in using oil pastels.

I showed students how to clean their oil pastel sticks by using a piece of paper towel if needed. I showed them how to do this by wrapping a folded piece of paper towel (less likely to tear this way) around the top of the oil pastel stick and just twist the oil pastel a few times (or as needed) as your other hand holds it firmly. This is a great tip for all and any art lessons when using oil pastels, and especially when you don’t want other colors getting everywhere in your artwork where you don’t really want it.

Students added snowflakes (of course!) and could add one on the tongue as well!

For a final step, they outlined with a black oil pastel to help define edges.

Look below the photos of artwork to see pictures of students creating them!

2ND GRADERS HAVE BEGUN THEIR NEXT ART LESSON “ABSTRACT SELF-PORTRAITS”! You can view previous blog posts on this lesson by typing in the lesson on my search page or click on 2nd grade art lessons and view more there too!

3RD GRADE

3D WINTER MUGS!

This lesson incorporates 5 of the 7 Elements of Art- (Line, shape, color, texture, and form), and we talk about perspective, and one of the Principles of Art “variety”! 

This lesson took 4 (40 minute) art classes to complete.

 DAY 1

First, students drew a horizontal line near the middle of their 9×12″ heavyweight tagboard paper as they held the paper vertically, using a ruler.

Then they drew 2 different patterns- 1 for the top section (creating the wall) and one for the bottom section (creating the table) for the mug’s background.

They then traced over their lines with various colored crayons, being sure to press hard as they traced.

On a smaller sheet (9” x 4.5”) of tagboard, they created patterns and designs as well in pencil. This paper would eventually be their mug. Then traced over their pencil lines with crayons as well.

DAY 2

Students finished tracing over their designs on both papers with crayon.

DAY 3

Students painted their 2 papers (background paper and mug paper) with liquid watercolors, creating a crayon-wax resist. Students could use any colors they wanted!

DAY 4

Students assembled everything together!

They first flipped the mug paper over and folded back the ends about an inch, creating 2 flaps. Using a glue stick, students applied the glue on each flap HEAVILY (I told kids to go up and down with their glue stick 12 times just to make sure they put on enough since the paper is so thick!!)

Then they glued the flaps down to their background papers one side as a time, pressing down and counting to 10 as they held it in place to make sure it stuck on. Then curved their mug paper with their hands and pressed down counting to 10 as they glued the other flap down.

Then they drew the mug’s handle by drawing the letter C on their chosen colored construction paper (cut to 3” x 4.5”), cut the C shape out and glued into place next to their mug.

For a final touch, students applied glue to their papers and then added a small amount of cotton batting to the mug for steam coming out from the top of their mug!! They loved the texture of the soft, fluffy cotton!

I LOVE all of these winter mugs! Each one is so unique!!

AWESOME job 3rd graders!!

You can check out my YouTube video tutorial on the 3D Winter Mug lesson as well!

3RD GRADERS WILL START “KINETIC PIRANHA” NEXT!

TO VIEW PREVIOUS BLOG POSTS ON KINETIC PIRANHA WITH STUDENT ARTWORK, YOU CAN TYPE IN THE LESSON ON MY SEARCH PAGE OR GO TO THE 3RD GRADE ART LESSONS PAGE AND SCROLL DOWN!

4th GRADE

MIXED-MEDIA DONUTS!

4th Graders did such an awesome job creating these colorful and fun donuts inspired by artist Wayne Thiebaud!

This lesson took 4 (40 minute) art classes to complete.

DAY 1

We reviewed what mixed-media means first, (using multiple mediums to create artwork) and I explained how we’d be using oil pastels, tempera paint, markers, colored pencils, and puffy paint to create their mixed-media donuts. I showed students my art teacher examples, as well as a PowerPoint with previous 4th graders donut artwork, then showed the first portion of my YouTube tutorial on the lesson.

First, students needed to create the background. They folded a piece of 9×12” heavy weight tagboard in half (horizontally) to create a crease, opened it up, then drew lines with a ruler to create a striped pattern along the top half. The lines could be horizontal, vertical, or diagonal.

They then did the same for the bottom ½ of their paper but made their lines going in a different direction.

They then colored in each stripe with various colored oil pastels. The top section was colored in with one design and the bottom section using other colors for a 2nd design. Other than making the top half different colors from the bottom half, they could use any colors they wanted!

DAY 2

Students finished coloring in their stripes with oil pastels, and then drew their donut on a separate piece of paper. I talked about perspective and I demonstrated how to draw a donut (not viewed from above, like a circle) but as if viewing from eye-level, resting on a table in front of you. To do this, students drew an oval with a smaller oval near the top of the donut. Frosting was drawn dripping around the top of it and into the hole of the donut as well. They colored in their donuts using markers and/or colored pencils.

DAY 3

Students painted over their oil pastel covered paper using 2 colors of their choice with liquid tempera, one color on the top half, and one color on the bottom half.

Once one section was painted, they used texture combs to scrape over the painted area while still wet, to create various lines within the paint and reveal the colorful oil pastel layer beneath it! Students LOVED this step!!

Students could create any lines with their texture combs they wanted (wavy, straight, etc, and could overlap as they scraped too). They then painted the bottom half and ran the texture comb along that section too, creating lots of texture to their background!

DAY 4

Student’s were introduced to artist Wayne Thiebaud and viewed a slideshow of his paintings. We discussed how his paintings of cakes, donuts and other sweet treats looked so real, and how the texture of his thick layers of paint for frosting looked like real frosting! I explained how in the next step- we would be adding even more TEXTURE to our artwork by adding a cut paper doily and puffy paint for the sprinkles!

Students then finished drawing and coloring in their donut if needed, and glued on a half a doily to the center of their papers with a glue stick.

Then cut out and glued on their donuts with a glue stick, and as a final step, applied various colored puffy paint on their donut to create their sprinkles (students LOVED this step!)

This lesson is always a hit with my 4th graders!!

Mixed-Media Donut lesson idea from Cassie Stephens

4th GRADERS ARE WORKING ON “RADIAL SYMMETRY PRINTMAKING” NEXT! A COUPLE CLASSES AT ROOSEVELT ALREADY STARTED, AND I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE WHAT EVERYONE CREATES! TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS LESSON AND SEE HOW THEY ARE CREATED, TYPE IN “RADIAL SYMMETRY PRINTMAKING” IN THE SEARCH BOX TO GO TO THAT BLOG POST!

To view my YouTube video on this Mixed-Media Donut lesson and the Radial Symmetry Printmaking lesson you can check out my YouTube channel HERE!

5TH GRADE

FALLING FOR FORESHORTENING!

For this art lesson, students learned about a type of perspective called foreshortening.

(Scroll down further to view photos of students working on this lesson!) Foreshortening is a drawing technique used to create the illusion where parts of something or someone appear to come out at the viewer strongly, making those areas seem closest to the viewer, and some parts appearing to recede strongly, making those areas seem the furthest away from the viewer.

Students used this technique by drawing a person that appears to be falling backwards into something, with their arms and legs outstretched. They did this by tracing their hands along the top of the paper, and their feet along the bottom of the paper, leaving space in the middle. They then drew the head, neck, arms, and legs of a person smaller, to create the illusion that the body was further away than the feet and hands.

Students were instructed to pay special attention to the soles of their shoes, being sure to add details and texture.

Students also had to draw the person’s facial expression to match whatever it was they were falling into (something scary, or something soft and fun!), show movement in the hair, and add line details to the palms of the hands for texture too.

Once the person was drawn, 5th graders outlined the entire person in black sharpie, then drew a background depicting what their person was falling into, and colored in everything using colored pencils and/or markers.

Some 5th grade classes are currently still working on these for another day or 2, but I’m super impressed with the creativity and attention to detail!

Here are a couple of students drawings only in pencil and sharpie to start…

Close-ups from the ones above

NEXT UP, 5TH GRADERS WILL START A NEW ART LESSON THAT I HAVEN’T TAUGHT BEFORE – INSPIRED BY THE ARTIST JIM DINE ….CAN’T WAIT!!!

THANKS SO MUCH FOR STOPPING BY AND VISITING MY BLOG TO SEE WHAT STUDENTS ARE UP TO IN THE ART ROOM! IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY…. CHECK OUT THE DROP DOWN SECTION “STUDENTS CREATING ART” PAGE ––I JUST ADDED A BUNCH OF FUN NEW PHOTOS!!

I’LL ALSO BE POSTING MORE ARTWORK LATER THIS WEEK!

SEE YOU SOON!

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WINTER BEARS IN SWEATERS! -2ND GRADE-

CUTENESS OVERLOAD!!! I ADORE THESE BEARS!!

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)

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