Tissue Paper Leaves

Supplies:
6″ x 9″ white drawing paper
Tissue paper cut into 5″ x 5″ squares
Mixture of white glue and water
small paint brush
Black marker (waterproof is best)
Oil Pastel

1. Tracing or drawing the Leaves with sharpie. Have pictures of leaves. They can put the tissue paper on top of the leaf drawings or draw leaves on their own. They must have newspaper under the tissue paper at all times.

2.Cut out leaves and arrange the leaves on the paper and brush smooth with the glue mixture under and on top. (Mod Podge would work too.)

3. Pick your next leaf and do it again! Encourage overlapping!

4. Week 2: The students will finish gluing leaves, and draw oil pastel leaves.

5. The students will then add a frame. (If there is time they can add tissue paper scraps to decorate the frame.)

Fall Still Life

I did this lesson with second graders. They created their piece by looking at a still life of a pumpkin and 3 gourds. There was a different arrangement of pumpkins and gourds on each table. We painted paste papers (1 orange, 1/2 green and 1/2 yellow) in one class while they were finishing up another project, then used them to cut out the shapes for our still life. They then added all the details of the pumpkins and gourds with crayons. If they had time they could color the background. They all came out really different and the paste paper added a nice texture. The kids loved painting them and combing through a design!

Sunset Silhouettes

These are great for fall. I found this on Deep Space Sparkle. I shopw 4th or 5th grade this video on positive and negative space: Positive and Negative Space.

1. We talk about what creates a silhouette.


2. Students wash a 9x12 inch piece of drawing paper.


3. Then they trace a ruler on all 4 side of the black paper to create a frame.


4. After that, they draw a landscape with pumpkins, bare trees, fences, grass, houses, etc.


5. Next they cut out the negative space (or background).


6. Finally they glue the black on top of the sunset colors.

Scarecrow Model

Fifth grade students help me make a scarecrow from recycled clothing etc. and then he models for us. Since we put him in different poses and he will sit still the entire period, he makes a great model. I use this lesson to identify and use visual texture. Students place textured items like burlap, cardboard, and corduroy under their drawing as they color in, creating a textured look to his clothing. The drawings always look great and the younger students enjoy seeing our scarecrow sitting around the Art Room for the month of October.

Fall trees

The children love this lesson. We discuss trees and how to draw them. Then discuss the background. Students draw a tree and fill in the entire background, no empty white space. We then use ONE finger to create all our leaves for the tree by painting fall colors with our fingerprints. We talk about the brown leaves ending up on the ground. It doesn't take much in the way of supplies but the results are always good. Hard to believe these two were made by first graders.

 

Leaf Sun Catcher

Students trace a template of a leaf two times on brown paper. Both leaves are cut out. A square of wax paper is glued to one leaf and then the student takes pieces of fall colored tissue paper and glues them to the wax paper. A second square of wax paper is put on top. The students then line up the second leaf and glue it to the other leaf. (I tell my students it is kind of like making a sandwich where the leaves are the bread, the wax paper is the mayo, and the tissue paper is the ham)

Leaf Prints

I like to do this leaf printing project in the fall. I ask students to bring in leaves and I bring in some from home. We classify each leaf. With third graders, I talk about mixing the paint right on the leaf to get intermediate colors. I use tempera paint cakes and tell my students to keep the paint on the dry side. Paint the side of the leaf with the veins, turn the painted leaf over onto paper and rub with a paper towel to get a good print. Lift the leaf off.

Fall Leaves

I did this project with 3rd grade. We made leaves with marker outlines and veins, and then used water to make the marker "bleed" (the cheaper the paper the better it works).

Fall Trees

Here are the fall trees I shared at the meeting. I do this with 2nd grade, and it is a 3 day project.

Day 1 - paint the sunset background (we talk about mixing the primary colors)

Day 2 - paint the tree and add highlights and shadows with black and white

Day 3 - Add the leaves using crayons and texture plates

They make the hall look nice and bright!

Warm and Cool Colors

Warm and Cool Leaves

I do this lesson with third graders after reviewing warm and cool colors. They use leaf tracers and outline them with black Sharpie and make veins in their leaves. The leaves in their drawing have to be warm colors and the background has to be cool colors. (this example shows some warm spots in the background but in person it doesn't look that way!) Students use oil pastels for this and the artwork always turns out vivid and stunning!

Fall Trees

Fall Trees

I do this lesson with my first graders. First we use tempera cakes to paint a sky and grass landscape on a 9x12 piece of white paper. Students get a second piece of paper (it can be 6x9 or smaller) and on this paper they are instructed to paint it reds, yellows and oranges. The second week, the students cut out a tree trunk from brown paper and I tell them it can't be a straight rectangle. (This example actually had a nice Y shape at the top but it got covered with her leaves.) After the trunk is glued to the paper, they cut up their red/orange paper for leaves.

Fall Pumpkins

I did this activity with kindergarten. I prepared some brown paper strips so the students could make a fence out of them. I showed the students how to cut the corners off of a rectangle shape to make a circular or oval shape for their pumpkins. They glued their pumpkins to their paper and decorated their papers with construction paper crayons. We finished up with a bit of glitter in the sky.

Fall Leaves

Second Graders traced leaves on manila paper. Then they took chalk pastels and put color around the edges. Placing the leaf on their white paper, a tissue was used to remove the pastel. A leaf outline is left on the white paper. After overlapping and doing this procedure several times, the students drew veins on their leaves they traced and glue them somewhere on their paper.