O'Keeffe Fall Leaves (2015)

Okay so I'm a little behind posting since we did this in fall....but that is what break is for!
Second grade Elementary Art Curriculum is focused on artists. After we wrapped up Matisse and our paper cut-outs we moved on to Wisconsin's own Georgia O'Keeffe.

This is a repeat project for me and you can find the original lesson here.

I Can Statements: I Can talk about Georgia O'Keeffe. I Can practice drawing many different kinds of leaves. I Can draw my best leaf using the whole back of my paper. I Can add details and an outline to my leaf with my best craftsmanship.

The project is based on one of my FAVORITE O'Keeffe paintings....Autumn Leaves, Lake George

Day 1:
Learning about O'Keeffe and filling out our Artist Book, Talking about fall color schemes, creating painted paper

Day 2: Practicing drawing leaves with the worksheet I made below then drawing the best one on the back of the painted paper they made, adding outline and veins with black tempera paint and flat head brushes

Day 3: Read slightly longer (but awesome) book from the Getting to Know The World's Greatest Artist series: Georgia O'Keeffe then had kiddos that didn't finish last time finish.

Resources I used:

Awesome bio video with her art and stop-motion animations, I read aloud the things that were written.

Getting to Know The World's Greatest Artists: Georiga O'Keeffe

This is a project I will for sure keep repeating throughout the future. The kids love it, it's beautiful, and the display is a favorite of mine!

Holiday Art 2015

Wanted to share what my students did the few days leading up to break....

 I really like the way I managed my holiday projects this year. The last day I saw each class before break (unless they were really behind on projects) we did holiday art. Kindergarten and 1st grade did the trees and I set up 2nd through 4th so they could choose from a variety of projects.

I have been doing video demos of projects this year where I record myself ahead of time.... I didn't want to take the time to do that for these projects, butI did take pictures and showed them a step-by-step slideshow. K and 1st just saw the tree and 2nd-4th got to see the step-by-steps for each project so they could decide which ones they wanted to do. I have a really large room so it was was easy to set up each project in different sections of the room.

The tree inspiration came from this image via pinterest. I pre-cut the strips and then hid the scissors so they had to approach it like a puzzle. The bottom right was done by a 1st grade kiddo with special needs and I about cried when I saw how awesome his turned out! This was the project for K and 1st but 2nd-4th could do it as one of their choices.

The name in lights project was the definite favorite. This one also took the longest depending on how many lights they drew. Everything in black is draw with sharpie and then the lights in washable markers. A little water with a paint brush over the top of the markers and it looks like they are glowing. Too much water was an issue for a lot of kiddos who didn't seem to hear the warning about too much water and the water dripped all over the page and took the marker with it. I cannot for the life of me find the Pin on pinterest that inspired this project.

 Paper quilling is seriously one of my favorite forms of art. I wish I would have taken more pictures of these! I started with them using a heavier paper (80lb) and the paper was not holding great, so I switched to a 50lb and the results were much better. The students that chose to do this were VERY into it.

I did a little quilling of my own during one of my really well behaved classes and turned it into an ornament!

I had a group of 3rd grade boys that asked to do legos for a majority of the time and I agreed only if they built whatever I challenged them to build. This was the Santa challenge. I am blown away what kids can do with legos. Anyone who says legos don't belong in an art room needs to reconsider!

These are the ornaments that the other two elementary art teachers that I am SO blessed to work with made for me this year!

And my hand-made ornament for family and friends this year!

Hope you have time to get a little creative yourselves this break, even if it's a new adult coloring book you got as a gift! I got 3!

Turkey Art 2015!

For my classes that were ahead before Thanksgiving we created Thanksgiving Turkey Art...

Kindergarten and 1st grade made Turkey Hats and 2nd and 3rd graders were challenged to make extraordinary turkeys by changing their feathers or dressing them up!

We watched this AWESOME art Thanksgiving story called a Plump and Perky Turkey by Teresa Bateman Illustrated by Jeff Shelly. It is about a town tricking a Turkey to come to town to be eaten by having him model and judge an art fair! Save this one for next year, it is THAT good.

I love seeing their creativity burst at the seams with this one day project!

Adaptive Art: Fall Projects Wrap Up

Now that Fall is officially over here in Wisconsin, here is a wrap up of the fall projects I did with my group of High School Adaptive Art Students...

 These were created with one of my favorite kinds of brushes to use to get texture, especially with this group of students...

Find them here from Roylco via School Specialty

We used oil pastels for the trunks. Thinking the trunks should have been thicker or maybe paint. I would possibly do this with Kindergarten or First grade for a one day project and maybe adding more to the background...inspiration came from this image only post via pinterest. 

 This is a project that has transformed from one I did last year with my Kindergarten and First Graders that you can see the original post from here. However, these ones are a billion times cooler with the bubble wrap printed leaves instead of the paper ones. I do also really enjoy the grass added to the bottom. I had my Ks and 1sts do them this year too but forgot about the green! Stay tuned for that post.

 Another repeat from a project I did with Ks and 1sts back in 2013. See the original project post here. Didn't make any changes except for not including the wind.

 A super quick (30 minutes or less) but fun activity we did. I created tracers of pumpkins and leaves and they cut and did texture rubbings on them. Inspiration came from pinterest via this post.

 

We used texture plates similar to these.

 This was an incredibly fun one. We created painted paper (front and back) and used a variety of brushes and bubble wrap of different sizes for the leaves and then painted the tube roughly with brown for the trunk. The next class we cut out cloud like shapes from the painted paper and inserted them into slits I cut in the tubes. Inspired by this post via pinterest.

This was the first real flop I have had with this group....The picture on the left was from the pin on pinterest via this artsonia post...and the two on the right are the best two from my group. Either I didn't do enough modeling or this was just too much for them. Might try again next year in a simpler way.

And last but not least, one of my favorites.... We had talked a lot at this point about leaves changing colors and how and why and this was a really fun visual representation of that. I had a leaf tracer for them and then we used oil pastels to color and try to blend to get the transitions of changing. I thought this one was also Pinterest inspired but I cannot seem to find the pin. Maybe it was my idea!

I'm still learning with this group and 3 days a week for 45 minutes is a lot of time and lesson planning but it is teaching me so much and it is such a relaxing part of my day that I really cherish!

Matisse Paper Cut-Outs with 2nd Grade (2015)

In my new district, Elementary Art curriculum for 2nd graders focuses on artists and art history. To kick this year off I started with Matisse. There is just something about all his artwork, from paintings to paper cut-outs, that elementary students enjoy. I think color is a big part of it but his artwork is also almost all positive and when they find out his life story (i.e. the wheelchair) my students get really inspired.

You can see my original post of my first time with this project here.

I did make a few changes including changing the background paper to a color of their choice, not reading/ watching When Pigasso Met Mootise (I'll save that for Picasso), and instead reading them this new book in my collection Henri's Scissors by Jeanette Winter, found here on Amazon.

We still watched this AWESOME video.

And played with this website on the SMART Board.

This is an amazing project for watching students explore and create. I don't give any limitations for cutting, gluing or dimensions as long as the paper color doesn't match and they use the entire paper. Because of this, and the idea that they can literally do nothing wrong, they EXUDE confidence during this project. A great project and feeling to start the year with.

Halloween Projects Round Up!

We had a very busy and creative few days in the Art Room before Halloween! I had a sub day and early release day mixed in to Halloween week and the week before so we took a break from current projects and did some one day create and take drawings/projects.

Second, Third, and Fourth graders were given the challenge to take the basic Frankenstein and take it to the next level. I had the draw along you see below to help get them started and then they were left to their own devices! Inspiration for this came from here via Pinterest.

Kindergarten and First Grade took two classes on these, one to talk about texture and create the main pumpkin (using texture plates) and then finished up the next class with the string and leaves. Inspiration came from here via Pinterest.

 When Kindergarten and First were finished with their pumpkins, we read the hilarious book Monsters Love Underpants and did a collaborative monster drawing on the SMART Board and then some quick monster drawing on their own.

Last but definitely not least I bought pumpkins for my small group of High School Adaptive Art students and we taped them off with masking tape and used acrylic paint to paint different sections. The paint peeled some but no complaints from that group :)

And a few bonus artworks...one class of Kindergarten and First did the the spiders on an early release day and the pumpkin man was a bonus drawing a 4th grader did with some extra time. Spider inspiration came from here via Pinterest.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!!