*UPDATE* Falling back in space self-portraits, 3rd Grade

Oh the sound of the OoooOoo's and Ahhhh's when these got hung in the hallway today could have been heard from across the street. These were a HIT!

Watercolor Flower bulletin board

Simple Self Portraits with a Splash, 2nd Grade

A month ago one of my 2nd grade classes started asking me about drawing themselves. They wanted to, but felt very overwhelmed with the idea. So, we got out some paper and I did the old fashion portrait lesson (in fact, I taught this to high schoolers when student teaching!). I showed them how our face is pretty symmetrical and all the little 'rules' to how far apart features should be, etc. The results were pretty good for 2nd grade! I didn't want to go and mess them up by having them outline in sharpie or something...so we decided to cut them out, and put them onto a tissue-paper modge-podged background (hence...our "Splash!"). I thought having a simple portrait against the crazy background was actually a nice balance. Oh, and this was actually my idea ;) ha!

Fantasy Fish! 1st Grade

This was another one of those ideas from DeepSpaceSparkle....love it over there. The kids could come up with their own wacky and wild fantasy fish. They could put spikes, crowns, stripes, or whatever on their fish to make it funky and fun. We outlined them in crayon, then used watercolor. The students cut them out when dry, and mounted on black paper. They added little details with scraps from the scrap cart. They turned out so very fun, and the students were thrilled with them!

Straw-blown Trees, 4th Grade

I found this gorgeous idea through ThatArtistWoman, and thought my 4th graders would enjoy it. So, I picked a class, and we rolled with it ;) We used real watercolor paper (and I am limited on this). They were about 6x10 or so. Then, we taped them down to a board (we used our weaving boards). Then, the students did a wet-in-wet watercolor technique for the background. The next day we watered down some brown tempera, dropped some in the corner and used our straws to blowwwww out the tree branches. Of course, you have to continually drop more on. Some of the kids did have a very hard time with it. I had some light-headed and dizzy ones after all that blowing. Haha. They added with q-tips some little pink, red or green dots to make the trees look in bloom. Sorry for the terrible quality pictures.

Contour Line Flowers, 2nd Grade

I got this idea from TeachKidsArt, and actually do my own version of this in the fall with leaves. But, this was a fun idea for springtime. It was also a great way to show my 2nd grade kiddos the color wheel and get talking about warm and cool colors. They really "got" it. Once they made one in cool or warm, they wanted to do the opposite, too. I figured it would be nice to display the two next to one another for the halls.

Hot Air Balloons, 3rd Grade

Wow. I have used SO many of Patty's idea's, its crazy. I have MORE to come. I am only in my 2nd year of teaching and I just want to try EVERYTHING, and I have so many cool lessons from last year that I've ditched already. I'm sure I'll come back to them, but I just want to try all these new, fabulous ideas I'm finding through all my art teacher friends.

This was her Hot Air Balloon project. In some classes we used marker, in others (like these), we used crayon and pastel for the background. I think all of them are bright, vibrant and fun.

Collage Houses, 1st Grade

I LOVE COLLAGE. I think I'm obsessed. My favorite part about it is how the classroom gets this very low and focused hum, because, they love to make STUFF! They love to cut, glue, get the room messy, and turn nothing into something. These houses are amazing. I know, I know...I say that all the time. But, wow. Look at the details! Bumblebees, kites, curtains, ghosts!, butterflies, trees, lightening, etc.

Ducks, 2nd grade

Thanks to ArtProjectsforKids I found a great step by step on how to draw ducks. I taught this to a 2nd grade class, and they loved it. We used watercolor as the medium. Everyone's turned out so different!

Symmetrical Vases and Tissue paper flowers, 1st Grade

I love the idea of these symmetrical vases. I took that idea, and ran with it. We used flourescent green paint for the stems and leaves, then created flowers out of tissue paper. The students then added details to their vases with oil pastels and created a 'table' for the vase to sit on. They are all so different and fun!

Today in class...

I went through my HUGE closet at school, and found a foot and a half tall stack of small cut 4x6 pieces of thick watercolor paper. I decided that I wanted to show the 4th graders how to draw some realistic flowers using an extra fine point sharpie, and the liven them up with some beautiful watercolor. I also, have to admit...I am dreaming about a bulletin board display using them. Here are some in progress pics....

Clay Foods, 4th Grade

I don't have a kiln and to be honest, I'm not sure if it's ever in the future for me, sadly. However, this year I was able to purchase some Crayola Air Dry Clay, and the reason I like this so much is because you can use marker, watercolors, or tempera to color them. It's easy! Its mess-free! It's what we got, so we make it work. We talked about different types of food, and the students only got a small little piece of clay. If they wanted something big, it had to be hallowed out and stuffed with a paper towel. It worked. They look great. They had to name their food as if it were on a menu and we'll display them with little cards saying that. Here is a quick shot of them :)

OH! And, And, AND!! I got a new Canon Rebel this weekend, so soon, my pictures will be much better.