Kindergarten-2nd grade Skeletons

This is a simple filler project that the young students are very successful with, and we use silver Sharpies.... No pencils, so the students really need to think about what they are drawing. I do this project step by step with them starting with the torso, then add the head, arms, and legs. Students add their own details at the end.

I'm sure there is a good Skelton book to read along with this project. 

2nd Grade-Blow-paint turkeys

What do you do when you have a ton of straws? Create blow paint art.

We started this project by designing a background. Some students turkeys, we're outside, some inside, and some were even on the table tops. 

Next we used watered down acrylic paint and put drops of paint in our paper where our turkey was going and blew the paint with a straw. 

Lastly, we designed turkey bodies out of brown construction paper and glued them onto our turkey feathers. 

2nd Grade Mayflowers

I found a great tutorial on Art Projects for Kids website. We did a step by step drawing together to create the basic shape of the ship. Then students had the opportunity to color their project with markers and crayons. Some students transformed their Mayflowers into pirate ships.

http://www.artprojectsforkids.org/2011/11/mayflower-ship-tutorial.html

2nd Grade- Rural to Urban

As I often drive from Columbia to St. Louis on highway 70, I thought it would be a good idea to create an art project that shows rural, suburban, and urban landscapes. This project also shows foreground, middle ground, background, and perspective.

Day 1: after discussing rural, urban, and suburban we started creating our landscapes. We drew our picture with pencil then traced over it with Sharpies. When drawing, I reminded students that things in the background are smaller than things in the foreground. We also discussed what types of things you would see in different environments.

Day 2: we colored in the details with crayons and then painted the sky and roads with watercolor. 

1st Grade-Cornucopia Still Lifes

I thought a cornucopia would be the perfect example for a still life because still life's by famous artists usually include fruit and food.

We started class by discussing still lifes and coming up with examples of things that are in still lifes. Next, I had templates of a cornucopia shape for students to trace a cut out. Together, we drew the lines and curves on the Cornucopias. Then we glued tan paper to our white paper to create a table and then we glued the cornucopia in the middle of our paper. Lastly, students used construction paper to cut out different fruits and vegetables to put in their still life. Some students even had time to add a background.

1st Grade Clay Owls

After creating abstract owls through drawing, we created owls with clay. We starts by rolling a piece of clay into a ball. We then flattened it like a pancake. In the middle of the pancake, we used a side of a Popsicle stick to make feathers/arches on the belly. Next, we folded in the sides to creat wings and scrapped a fork over the wings to add ones. Then we folded down the top part to create the head. We made sure to pinch the top corners for the ears. The bottom of a Mr. Sketch marker worked perfect for the eyes. We used a wooden stick to add dots in the middle of the eyes. Lastly students added the beak and any other details they wanted using clay or wooden sticks.

We painted our owls the rolling class period with watercolors. 

Looking back, I wish the owls had holes in then to turn them into ornaments. 

1st grade Abstract Owls

This was a simple one day lesson for 1st grade. We read Good Night Owl and then created our own owl using crayons and watercolor paints. The main focus for this lesson is abstract art- you can tell what the object it but it is not realistic because the size, shape or color is altered.