2nd Grade Underwater Self-Portraits (2015)

Second graders loved Robert Wyland so much that we did two projects inspired by him. Out first was Warm and Cool Waves, the second were these AWESOME underwater self-portraits inspired by this, this AND this project via pinterest.

I Can statements: I Can draw a self-portrait with my features in the correct places. I Can draw a sea creature realistically.

Day 1: To kick off the project we looked at portrait photographs that were taken underwater and discussed what looked the same and different as above water. 

I showed them this video of Wyland painting underwater to connect back to Wyland. How freaky and awesome would it be to paint underwater!?

After all this chatting we got to work drawing the self-portraits. I did a draw along with them up on the SMART Board to help guide where to put features and how to draw the snorkel and mask.

Day 2: I checked out a large variety of sea animal books from the library and had them look through the books and choose a sea creature they wanted to draw. Before they added it to their portrait they had to practice drawing it using the books and attempt to make it look more realistic. I really pushed drawing from the images and not from their minds. This was a little difficult of a concept for them, but by the last group of 2nd graders, I finally found the right way to describe what I meant. When their practice was done I gave them their portrait to add the creature to. Nearing the end of class we came back together to talk about what good coloring looks like with crayons and how to achieve it so those that were ready to color could start.

Day 3: Refreshed our coloring discussion and then they got busy coloring. When the first few were done coloring, I showed my demo of using liquid blue watercolor to do a wash over the entire page. I really made a point to explain that any paper that was showing was going to turn blue so "bad coloring" would be really visible. Make sure they color the white of their eyes or their will possibly be tears when they turn blue....

  

These just make me so incredibly happy to look at!

K & 1 Eric Carle Inspired Ocean Collages (2015)

While 2nd grade was learning about Wyland and his artwork was up in my room, I took advantage of it and created these collages with my Kindergarteners and First Graders. The octopus was my own idea and the seahorse idea came from here via Pinterest.

I Can Statements: I Can talk about what happens when paint mixes. I Can create painted paper. I Can look at artwork to learn about the Ocean. I Can create an Octopus/Seahorse in the ocean from painted paper.

Day 1: Eric Carle Illustrations, and Painted Paper

To kick off the project we "read" via watching on Youtube Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle. I don't always do books this way but I couldn't get it from the library in time and this was a really nice version.

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*This book is all about sea dads and it's hilarious to see K and 1st's confusion about the dad being the "pregnant" one. It is against everything they've ever known, but a great science connection!

Then we looked at a variety of Eric Carle books and talked about how he makes his artwork. I'm thinking next year to make this more in depth and have them actually sit around the books and really look and explore, maybe even find clips of Carle working to show them.

Then we spent the rest of class making really large pieces of painted paper. 18x24 white pieces of paper were used and each day in the rotation a different color paper was created. We made Yellow, Orangish, Purple, and Green using tempera paint pre-mixed into different shades and tints. We used big stiff brushes, paint scrapers, and my personal favorite Roylco Funny Floppy Foam brushes. When dry, I cut each piece into 9x12 pieces.

Day 2: Creating Sea Creature.

Kindergarten created Octopi (is that right?) this day and I had them do it by drawing the legs and body separate to ease in cutting. They traced a circle lid for the body and drew worms for the legs. Then they glued it together on a 12x18 white paper. 

First grade was a little different this day. They created their seahorse with me through a draw along and then spent time cutting the seahorse, seaweed, and coral. They did not do any gluing and I gave them a large envelope to keep all their pieces in with their seahorse.

 

Day 3: Cutting, gluing, and painting.

Both groups spent time cutting and gluing seaweed and other creatures. When they finished I had two stations set up for painting water and bubbles. Water was one station, bubbles was at another. Water was regular watercolors and bubbles were glitter tempera paint stamped with a marker cap. When they did their bubbles, I was there to glue on googley eyes with tacky glue.

Day 4: Finishing up!

Quite a few kiddos at both levels needed more time so the last day was spent on finishing up and drawing underwater artwork on big 18x24 paper that they could take with that day. THEY LOVED IT.