Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Impressionist Trees Using Primary Colors

These beautiful trees were created using only primary colors, "double dipping" their brushes to create trees in green, orange and purple. I love how this project was a lesson in color mixing for my Pre K's - 1st Graders, as well as a quick lesson in Impressionism. I brought out the book,"Lydia in Monet's Garden" to show some examples of the strong display of brush strokes.










Monday, October 5, 2009

Q-Tip Skeletons







I love the fun energy and individuality these have with such a simple medium as q-tips and paper. A fun project for Halloween time!

Picasso Style Self Portraits



My 2nd and 3rd graders used oil pastel to explore the world of cubism in these self portraits.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

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!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

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.