Snowy Cardinals, 2nd Grade

Another lovely idea I got from APFK and just modified a bit.

We used 9x12 white paper, did a step-by-step of the cardinal after discussing them and looking at books--then the kids outlined, and used oil pastel to color.

They went back and re-outlined with a black oil pastel to make it bold again.


They added snow at the end using q-tips and white tempera paint.

Thankful Turkeys, 1st-4th grade

I taught the students how to draw the turkey that was posted on Art Projects For Kids (which was a great base for lots of turkey-projects), and then gave them a variety of materials to use.

I love the one posted directly below, because they chose to add textured grass by doing tissue-paper grass. They all turned out really cute, and the kids always love learning something new to draw and add to their book of "can-do's".

Positive/Negative Pumpkins, 2nd Grade

Gotta love Art Projects for Kids, to whom I credit this awesome idea. It was a great one-day take home project for Halloween and if we did it really slow, and together...they kids did a really great job with it.

Foreground, Middle and Background trees, 2nd Grade

I've posted on these before, but this year we added a fall twist. I had the students add the leaves, and make sure they were doing it in perspective. I think the results were quite nice!

This year, we used tempera cake's to paint them versus oil pastels---and I think the color was really vibrant.

Van Gogh Sunflowers, 2nd Grade

I love anything having to do with Van Gogh, and usually my kids do too. Once I show them he's the guy who did Starry Night, they are hooked. That image is so etched into their minds, it's an icon to them. So, with this project I wanted to show them his famous Sunflowers painting. The sad thing was, most classes ran out of time (I am seeing the last batches of students this past week and next week), that they aren't completely finished, but this is how they are going home.

I really hit hard on overlapping, going off the paper (cropping), and making their flowers appear realistic. 2nd to 3rd grade for me is where that big leap happens. In 3rd grade we really hit home more realistic drawing.

We used oil pastels for these. Drew the vase first, then the centers of the flowers. I had them draw a total of 6...one was supposed to go off the paper, and some should be ovals and some circles. Then, we drew the stems and I do a funny little lesson on what NOT to do (or what they would have done in Kindergarten or First Grade), and it makes them laugh, and realize how silly that was. They are determined to make them look realistic and overlap after that. I like the way they turned out even under crunched time.

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!

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.

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!

Beautiful Butterflies (in progress), 2nd Grade

Pictures for this short post will be enough. Enjoy.

Matisse Inspired Name Designs, 2nd Grade

Thank you to DeepSpaceSparkle for this...we loved the idea and ran with it.

I started off by talking a little bit about Matisse's paper cut-outs and showing them his work. I gave them their paper and access to a huge scrap cart. I showed them examples of other students artwork online, and then discussed with them about cutting out letters, shapes, etc. They really liked this, even after I told them NO pencils, surprisingly. I am in awe of how great these turned out in 2nd grade. I wasn't sure because I did them with a younger grade then I saw on Patty's blog. But, it worked...and pretty wonderfully, too.

Flower Vases, 2nd Grade

Thanks to all you lovely art-teacher bloggers out there... the projects I am posting today resulted from your silent inspiration!

I had never done a "drawing with glue" project. I decided it was a MUST. The kids were funny, they complained more then I would have ever suspected about how "hard" it was. But, when they finally got the grasp, they were ok. I showed the students Van Gogh's sunflowers for inspiration, but they were not limited to doing just sunflowers. We used colored chalk, which...was a bit messy. Overall, they turned out nice. Here is one of my favorites:

You know me...I'm a sneak-peek type of gal.

I can hardly ever wait till the final product is finished to snap pictures! I might have an illness ;) So, here are some sail boats in action. We did the sails and such in oil pastel to keep them bright and vibrant, and the focal point. The rest will be done (and is being done!) in watercolors. The kids were loving blending the colors. I adore watercolors. Oh, and they all named their boats, which was fun. They came up with some really creative names!

Valentines Day Pockets, 2nd Grade

In their classrooms the kids have Valentines Day parties, where they all give the cute little cards to one another (exactly like we did as kids, some things never change!). So, we made the 'holders' for those cards.

These are made from a half of a paper plate simply stapled to a piece of construction paper. Then, I wrote everyones names so they would be neat. They added all the detail with glitter crayons and sharpie.

City Collages, 2nd Grade

Here is only one example of the city collages I did with 2nd graders. Many of them are more detailed then this, but I just snapped a quick picture of this one yesterday for blog-world. I gave every student a 9x12 sheet of black paper and access to a major scrap cart filled with lots of colors. Its a huge mess, basically :-) They constructed their own cities, added details with thin markers, then added a night time sky with oil pastels.

Paper Plate Mosaics, 2nd Grade

After doing this with 2nd grade, I definitely think it could work with 3rd, maybe even better. The concept of mosaic I found a little difficult for the 2nd graders. However, some of them definitely got it. I think this year I will try it with 3rd grade. After they were all finished with the mosaic, we covered with a 50/50 glue and water mixture to seal it.

Tear Poinsettias, 2nd Grade

I actually started out with my other poinsettia project you've seen posted on here. But, by my 7th or 8th class of 2nd grade, I was totally sick of that project. Instead, we started making tear poinsettias. They actually loved it! The freedom to rip paper is sort of exhilarating to the students. So, here is the result, I almost like it better then the other ones.


Simple and beautiful. If I were a parent I'd hang it every year at this time of year.

Build-your-own Snowman Ornament, 2nd Grade

The reason I like doing this is not for the big huge mess that my room ends up in, with itty bitty pieces of scraps everywhere, believe it or not; but because the students really learn how to build and piece things together. They also get to put their creative hand on them and make any type of snowman character they want.
I think I may be done posting Christmas projects now...we'll see, we'll see.

Poinsettias, 2nd Grade

This is a project I do around Christmas time, obviously. I like that I get to teach the kids how to cut better, glue control (oh that's a biggie), and assembling a project together (collaging, per-say). These are a beautiful addition to the hallway. I also change it up with what we 'add' for detail. For instance, this time, I had metallic paper so I used that for the vase and for the little petals. Last year I used feathers and added them for fun. I didn't have feathers this year, so I decided to add glitter. Whatever you add, they turn out really fun and they are a great project for any parent to take out every year at Christmas-time and decorate the house with.

Candy Canes, 2nd Grade

I love this project around the holidays. It's a simple 2-day lesson and the kids really enjoy it. It is the only time they are able to use a tracer all year. They must draw 10 candy canes at least, and some need to be overlapping. They have to draw the lines of candy cane in a curved fashion to make it look 3-D (we used glitter crayons). They also need to 'know' what type of candy cane they are drawing, so is it Strawberry Banana, or just plain Peppermint? The results are lovely. Glitter is added for some fun. The students drew borders around the edge if they had time. Sorry for the bad pictures...I didn't crop them.

Contour Leaf Design, 2nd Grade