Scarecrow Collages

My "go to" blog, Deep Space Sparkle prompted this project for Kinders and 1st graders. The background started with crayon drawings of sun and hills, followed by watercolor sky and earth. I provided templates for hat, shirt and pants and allowed them to use scrapbook paper, construction paper and leftover painted paper. Finishing touches were buttons, patches, rafia for the straw and precut crows. What a cute project for fall!

Proud Peacocks!

I have a group of Pre-K and Kindergarten students this fall. I realized very quickly just how varied their abilities can be in terms of fine motor control at this age. So I needed a project that wouldn't bore my students who were a little more on the advanced spectrum while not frustrating those at the other end. I had the children trace over my simple pencil drawing of the peacock feathers shape. They then painted the whole space blue, then added green and dark blue strips. For the beautiful "eyes" of the feathers, we used cotton balls, thumb prints, finger prints, and then Q-tip prints. They glued a pre-cut body down and added an eye.

I think the results were wonderful for everyone!

Fun with "Where The Wild Things Are" - Kindergarten

I was inspired to do this project after viewing a lesson from "Art Projects For Kids." We looked at the illustrations of Maurice Sendak. I talked about his use of line for detail. They did a great job creating their own unique monsters using permanent marker and watercolor.

Kindergartenders do Kandinsky

These pieces are so different and yet so wonderful. Kinders are the perfect age to "get" the beauty of Kandinsky. As soon as I showed some of his examples I heard the "OOH"s and "AAH"s. I talked about the difference between geometric shapes and organic shapes. I put out a variety of geometric shapes to trace into a wonderful composition of overlapping shapes. I encouraged them to add a few organic shapes. They brought them to life with watercolor.

Jim

Dine

Inspired

Hearts -

Kindergarten

These collages were created with tissue and starch backgrounds and the hearts were done using chalk pastels. They were glued to small pieces of foam core for a 3D effect.

Recycled

Art

Fun

These recycled pieces were created in my summer Recycled Art Fun Camp using foil, hardware, soda pop tops, and magaines. Both the robots and dog collage were inspired by works in The Usborne Complete Book of Art Ideas. I especially love the robot skateboarder!

Mixed-Up Hockney Inspired Portraits

I'm a big fan of David Hockney. I think he hits home the Cubist movement in a new way for the children. Originally I thought I'd introduce my 1st and 2nd graders to him by taking 5 close up shots of their facial features (forehead, left and right eyes, nose and mouth) and asking them to put them together to form a cubist version of themselves. But when I started playing around with the double copies I ordered, I created a compilation of the features of the children in my class - and created a new mutated child. I howled with laughter. What 6-8 year old wouldn't get a kick out of this? So we played a game to mix up the facial features and everyone got 5 different pictures to create their new mixed up kid. They assembled these 2 compilations side by side.
This has been a hugely popular project and one that is often requested.

Aluminum Can Flower Gardens

For my recycled art camp I pre-cut aluminum cans into flower shapes (these are young children). Acrylic paint in a variety of colors was available to paint the flowers. Outside we used tempera to splatter paint our recycled cardboard.

FUN WITH ABSTRACT

I have a rejuvinated excitement about Kandinsky. He created Squares with Concentric Circles 100 years ago this year!! I explained the significance of his work as one of the first abstract artists to my young art students. I explained abstract art began after the camera was invented and could replace the portrait work of many artists. Now art was about things other than the world we observed. The Kandinsky inspired piece is a group work in progress. I asked each child in my Kindergarten and 1st garde class to create 1 square of circles using some colors they love. I can't wait to frame this piece when it is full. The other abstract piece was created by my daughter using different geometric shapes that were traced and painted in a unique composition. I'm loving this one as well!