Back to School Project

All Hands on Deck
This year's back to school art project was for everyone in the building to trace their hand and then decorate it to tell about their selves. They could include favorite hobbies, subjects, colors, teams, foods etc. Once they were cut out I assembled them into a large banner to display for Back to School Night. Everyone was excited to look for their hand.

Here's a close up of some of the hands:

Fourth Grade ~ Fundraiser Idea

Khamsas / Hand designs worked great for the fourth grade fundraiser. Bright colorful and all look great!

Owls

Third grade made Owls for the fundraiser activity. Again, excellent results! Sharpie and water color crayons.....

Fish ~

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The PTA signed us up for a fundraiser, so I've been working on that the last few weeks. I've tried over the years to find projects for the children that are bright, colorful and have a really high rate of success. I'll post some of the things I am doing this year. Second grade did fish. We drew them and then outlined with Sharpies. We used water color crayons for the color. They are coming out beautiful. Very impressed!

Contour Line Drawing

1.Show an example of a contour line drawing. Explain that you only draw the outline. No details. You must look at the object, this is drawing from life not imagination. 2.Demonstrate the project. 3.Look at the gourds for about 30 seconds. Look at the shape and color. Place them in the middle of the table and do not move them. 4.Draw the gourd at least 5 times. Overlap them. Draw the ones closest to us large and the ones far away small. You can draw more if you have extra time! 5.Add sharpie. Day 2 1.Add colored pencil. Overlap the colors to make new colors. Really look at the gourds to see the color. Are they all yellow? (orange/green) 2.Add watercolor. You can use the watercolor to make shadows under the gourds. What colors will work for shadows?

Kandinsky Colorweaver

THis is a great activity for students that finish work early instead of just a free draw. THis is from Art Projects for Kids: Kandinsky Colorweaver Wassily Kandinsky made a beautiful painting called "Color Studies" back in the early 1900's that is fun to imitate with oil pastels instead of watercolor. 1. Distribute 9" x 12" pieces of art paper to students. Give them rulers to measure and draw pencil lines across the middle of the paper in both directions. 2. Ask the students to start in the center and with an oil pastel, draw an angle and fill in the triangle that is created. Continue around the center with drawing triangles, only changing colors each time. 3. Once a diamond is created, add bands of color around the diamond, always changing color on the pencil lines. Continue until the paper is filled with color. This picture was made by a kindergartener in an afterschool class.

Beginning of the Year....

Sorry, it's been a while since we've updated... I'm going to try to get it going again.... This year as an opening project I had EVERYONE in the school create a self portrait. I sent out emails to the staff and placed the paper in the staff's mailboxes. The children created theirs in art class. We colored them in and cut them out. I actually cut out kindergarten since it was their first art lesson of the year. It was interesting how many of the teachers tried to get creative when it came to turning their's in. Many had their friends, children,  or co-workers draw them. I introduced the children to the Where's Waldo books... yes introduced, hard to believe so many had never heard of them. I then glued all the self portraits on a large sheet of bulletin board paper with the principal as our Waldo. She was very prompt about turning her self portrait in, and I might add did a great job on it.  Needless to say our display is getting quite the response in the hallway. It's been a fun way to start the year.

Monarch Butterflies

We wrote a grant at my school to build a butterfly habitat.  Each class was given butterfly larvae to watch. When they turned into butterflies they were put into the butterfly sanctuary outside the Library.  Interest was high on the subject of monarch butterflies!  My second grade students first drew the butterflies in pencil and colored with orange, black, and white crayon.  The next week they used oil pastels and watercolor paint for the background.  The paintings were beautiful in the hallway next to the Library and I ended up with a great lesson on teaching symmetry in nature.

Hearts with Tints and Shades

I have fourth grade students divide their paper into 1/4's and trace a heart in each section. I teach a lesson on tints, shades and also complementary colors. We used tempera paint cakes to paint them. I let them decide how to paint the hearts and background but encourage them to try a few tints, shades or a complementary color combination. It could also be used with patterns.

My Family

Kindergarten students end up with a red heart to give away and a heart framed drawing of their family to take home. I fold red paper and pre-draw 1/2 of a heart for them. They cut on the line, open it up, and are amazed that they have a perfect heart! They decorate their heart or write a message. We glue the heart frame to white paper and they draw their family.

So sweet.