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.

There's a Wocket in my Pocket...

Elementary schools celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss. This is a project that I do with kindergarten. I read the book "There's a Wocket in my Pocket". After reading the book, the children start by making a pattern on a piece of paper. We then glue a square on the paper to make a pocket. A few dashes with the crayon and you have stitches around the pocket. The children then make a "Wocket" for in the pocket. We were able to do this in one class period. These examples were completed earlier today. Fun project!

Coat of Arms

In 5th grade I have my students create their own personal coat of arms. (This is a much anticipated project) I used the book "Design Your Own Coat of Arms" by Rosemary Chorzempa to help the kids with some different ideas for their coat of arms. We talk about the different elements they need to incorporate, the shield shape, the helmet/bow/crown at the top, mantling (the decoration around the helmet and top of the shield), and the scroll at the bottom with their motto (we talk a little about examples of mottos and what a motto is). Unlike traditional coats of arms, these projects are not about their family name, instead they should represent them as a person. The students incorporated different symbols that related to them or represented things they like to do. The kids LOVE this project, which is pretty cool for a non-messy thing. We used skinny sharpies to outline and colored pencils to color in.

Penguins....

I did this project with first grade, but it would also work with Kindergarten.  I read the book, "Penguins, Penguins Everywhere!" by Bob Barner. We then  created  penguins step by step together. I saw similar ideas on several other blogs. They are adorable!

Compass Rose

Whenever possible I like to correlate with the classroom teachers on projects. Third grade created a Compass Rose. We used rulers, circle templates, sharpies and colored pencils. The children absolutely loved this project.  The results were quite impressive.

Snowmen Painting

This is a project that was done with first grade. We drew the snowmen, outlined them with sharpie and then painted them with tempera cakes. The following week we glued them on a sheet of construction paper and used oil pastels to make snowflakes on the frame. They came out SUPER! We have received many compliments on the displayed work.

Cool Blog

Check out this cool art blog at www.deepspacesparkle.com

Great lessons and classroom ideas. I am having a difficult time with the dreaded free draw at the end of class. This blog had a good discussion with a few solutions. I think I may try some white boards!

Snowman

Oil Pastel Snowman

My fourth grade students started out by drawing a one inch border around their paper. Their next step was to use a pencil to draw their snowman close-up. After drawing the snowman, they traced their pencil lines with white glue and let their paper dry until the following week. Once the glue is dry, the students used oil pastels to color in their artwork. The dried glue leaves nice black lines around their shapes in the drawing.