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.

 

Funny Faces

I do this with my kindergarten classes. They tear pieces of scrap paper to make a face. Then they use old medicine bottles, cardboard, etc. dipped in black paint to add details to their funny face.

Fall Symmetry

Students receive one sheet of 9x12 paper and a half sheet of a different color. Students draw half of their image on the half sheet of paper. After cutting out their image and saving all of the pieces, they glue it to the full sheet of paper.

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)

Explorer Ship

When my third graders are studying explorers, we make a ship. We start by using tempera cakes to paint a 9x12 sheet of paper greens and blues. Then we use crayons or oil pastels to color a second sheet in warm colors. The following week, the blue paper is torn and glued to the warm colored paper to make the ocean. The torn parts are white so if they are glued so the white is at the top, it looks like waves. Lastly, the students draw a ship on brown paper and some sails on white paper. The ship is glued to the ocean scene.

Super Artist!

It's a bird.
It's a plane.
It's SUPER ARTIST!

We had a Super Hero Bookfair Night, and all the teachers dressed up as super heroes.


If anyone needs an artist super hero costume... :)

More Fundraiser

 

Fifth grade used chameleons for their inspiration for the square 1 fundraiser project. We talked about chameleons, read a book about them and then drew one together. They were then urged to give their chameleon a personality of its own. Each one should look different from the rest. We added patterns and bright colors to our designs. They came out GREAT! I loved them,

and so did the kids!

 

Square 1 Fundraiser

One of the schools where I teach does the Square 1 fundraiser. I thought I would post a few ideas that I used this year with the classes. In third grade we did cats using the art of Laurel Burch. The students enjoyed looking at her work and discussing the cats. We then created cats of our own. I emphasized using lots of patterns in their designs. I thought they came out great! I think you could do the cats with any grade leve and still have success.

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).