Whoo Whoo? Texture and Tinting with Third Grade

I must say I am captured by the creative creatures my students draw and I am particularly drawn to owls.  These hand drawn owls are a quick draw from 3rd graders and they are precious.  They started with the pencil drawings and then went to oil pastels and construction paper. 

They demonstrated that they fully understand how to tint with the white oil pastels and create texture with lines.

This is truly one of my favorite projects!

4th Grade "Busy Trees" - Trunks with Character

Going through the stash of great art samples that my predecessor left me, I found construction paper tree trunks which inspired this project... there is a book by Lois Ehlert, Nuts to You which may have been the origin of creativity.  Either way, it lends a great literature connection along with another book, Busy Tree.  

Last year the students drew owls on black construction paper with oil pastels. See that project here.  It was one of my favorite projects... so this was a great way to do the same project with a twist.  Some students made piles of owls, sneaky owls, baby owls.  They are all fantastic!

The children explored with color

and they really brighten up the hall.

Kandinsky Inspired Art: Abstract Creations focusing on organic and geometric shapes

I enjoy starting off with Kandinsky. The lessons lead to a lot of creativity.

We focused on organic and geometric shapes.  Drawing with oil pastels to cover our papers.

While listening to classical music, similar to Kandinsky, students explored with water colors, filling in their different shapes.

Last, students made some marks with black oil pastels.  These are a family room framer! Aren't they beautiful?

Wildcat Monochromatic Self Portraits, First Project of the Year

I have seen this on Pinterest, so I can not claim it- there are lots of creative teachers sharing great ideas there.  It was our first project of the year for 1st- 5th grade.  Our room is divided up into 6 tables. One for each color of the rainbow. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Violet.  Students worked on drawing their self-portraits with different mediums of the same color based on the table they sat at.

This project leads to many principles and elements of art. We discuss Line, Shape, Color, Value, Texture and Proportion.

We discussed shape, and how our heads are more of an oval rather than a round circle.

We talked about proportion and placement of ears and eyes and how to use a criss-cross to guide our drawing.  We practiced drawing eyes with pupils that had light reflection, irises, eye lids and lashes. 

The students got a kick out of drawing their hair with lots of lines to create texture and to use different mediums and draw with value.

Students were able to create with oil pastel, colored pencil, crayon and marker.

Over all, these self-portraits look great and it is difficult to differentiate which ones were created by which grade!

Kinder Kandinsky

This project always turns out so fantastic. One of our teachers says she needs a few of these Kandinsky circles for her family room art. They are lovely to look at!  I love how the students experiment with the water color, in addition to their circular markings.  We talk about Abstract art, shapes, circles, color and Kandinsky himself who liked to listen to music while he painted!  This particular project is inspired by one of his more popular pieces called Concentric Cirlces.

We start off with precut squares of paper. Students make their circles with oil pastels.

Next, students use water colors to paint their circles.  We talk about how to hold their brushes, and to use the tip of the brush and let it "dance" in the paint pallette and on the paper.  We don't scrub, scratch or mop with our brushes because that will damage the brush hairs.

I have the best job... it is a lot of fun listening to the students as their artwork comes to life.  Isn't it amazing how they turn out!