Giraffe's Can't Dance...

I've noticed this project on many art blogs. I was always curious, this year I decided to give it a try with my first grade. I loved it! The children loved it! The results were amazing.... so fun. It is crayon resist.

Royal Self Portraits...

This is one of my favorite projects to do with first grade! They love it and the results are adorable!!! We discuss facial features and placement and draw together. They outline their drawing with Sharpie. We then outline with a Crayola marker and then use a wet paint brush to fill in the shape... We call it "Painting with a Marker". The kids love it and talk about how they might be "allowed" to paint this way at home.

The final step is adding "jewels" to our crown.

Analogous Colors

Analogous Color Weaving

In reviewing analogous colors with my fourth graders, I decided to put a weaving twist with it.

1. review the color wheel
2. draw an organic shape in the middle of your paper
3. follow the contour of your first shape to draw other shapes around your first
4. use a Sharpie marker to trace over pencil lines
5. Paint the shape picture with an analogous color family (watercolor or tempera)

The following week:

1. use a black piece of 9x12 paper to make a loom
2. cut your existing painting into strips (a ruler width is a good size)
3. weave your painting through the black paper. there should be 3-4 strips left.
4. glue your artwork onto a paper from the same color family
5. use the leftover strips from your painting to decorate the edge

Sensational Still-Life

Sensational Still-Life

I find that my older students have trouble drawing things large enough so we cheated a bit with this still-life and used tracers for the fruit and bowl. (For my more confident artists, I gave them a choice to use or not to use the tracers) The project was more about color anyway, so I didn't feel too badly about the tracers. Plus the results are always nice and everyone comes away with a piece of artwork that is successful.

Lions, and Tigers, and Bears...

March comes in like a lion...

In follow-up to jungles in first grade, I have my second graders draw a lion on white 12x18 paper. I demonstrate the steps on drawing the lion and then they are on their own. Their lion has to be divided into shapes so that patterns can be put on the lion. After the pencil drawing is complete, they use a black Sharpie marker to go over their lines. Watercolor or tempera cakes are used to color their lion. The following week, the lions are cut out and glued to black paper. Green cut out leaves and vines are added. Stars and a moon complete the jungle background.

Henri Rousseau Tigers

Materials: Photos/books about tigers (first grade level); 6x9 white paper; Surprise! by Henri Rousseau; black crayon/oil pastel, orange tempera cake paint; green liquid tempera; leaf-shaped sponges; construction paper crayons; newspsper; 9x12 green paper; Tiger/henri Rousseau coloring pages

Day 1

1. Show the painting "Surprise" by Henri Rousseau to first graders.
2. Ask students if the tiger looks like a photograph. Is it important to make the tiger look real? Tell how Henri Rousseau had never been to a jungle and used his imagination to draw his jungles.
3. Show real photos of tigers and tell students they can be as big as a car!
4. Have students draw tiger with pencil first on 6x9 white paper. Touch 3 sides of the paper.
5. Go over pencil lines and draw stripes with black crayon or oil pastel.
6. Have students go to an orange paint station to paint tigers.
7. Place on drying rack and get Henri Rousseau coloring page.

Day 2

1. Students will make jungles for the tiger!
2. Cut out tigers.
3. Glue on 9x12 green paper.
4. draw horizion line behind the tiger with black crayon.
5. With black crayon draw 4 trees in the background and big leaves in the foreground.
6. Color with construction paper crayon. (sky, trees, grass, leaves)
7. Students can draw other jungle animals hiding in the leaves too.
8. Go to green paint station and stamp leaves in the foreground.

Woven Chinese Dragons

Materials:
9x12 White paper
Black tempera cake paint or watercolors
Oil pastels
6x9 black paper
Book: Legend of the Chinese Dragon by Marie Sellier

Day 1

1. Woven Chinese Dragons! Second grade learns about China in March and April.
2. Read: Legend of the Chinese Dragon by Marie Sellier. Talk about the animals that make up the dragon: ox, fish, horse, serpent, bird.
2. Artists designed and colored two sheets of paper- one with dragon scales and the other with an abstract design- all in oil pastels. Talk about abstract shapes. They start from a real object, but the lines are very messy!
3. Then they painted over these papers in black tempera/watercolor.

Day 2
4. Next the artists cut strips from the scales page and wove it into the other page to create the dragon's body.
5. The artists learned about symmetry to create their dragon's heads that they cut from black paper and then designed with oil pastels.
6. The artists cut necks and tails and then colored them as well before attaching them to their dragon.
7. The artists cut out and colored two sets of people legs- just like the ones that carry and dance the Chinese dragons!
8. Finally, the artists can write their names in Chinese to finish their projects.

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

It's Dr. Seuss's birthday this week. I read "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish to my second grade. We painted one piece of white paper with bright stripes. We then drew a fish with Sharpie and painted it red or blue. After they dried we cut them out and glued them on the striped paper.