Shadow tracing is a great way to get outside on a bright sunny day, explore positive and negative space, and have some fun with color at the same time. Shadow tracing is low stress for students (2nd grade and up) and has minimal prep for teachers. Students can usually finish one of these paintings in a single class period, or you may want to let them do a few tracings the … [Read more...]
Popcorn Drawing – Observation & Imagination
Have you ever looked at a cloud and seen an animal or some other random image? Most everyone has used their imagination to "find" things in clouds, and popcorn offers this same creative experience! This is a great lesson for 5th grade and up. Make sure you create a sample to illustrate the steps... a picture is worth a thousand words here! After doing this lesson, your … [Read more...]
African Masks with Scratch Art Paper
Scratch Art paper is available with either a white, colored, or foil background, which is revealed when the black top coating is scratched away with a wooden stick. While this technique is simple enough for Kinders to do, the most striking results are achieved by upper grade students who have the patience to make more detailed drawings and patterns. (The younger kids often … [Read more...]
Underwater Fantasy inspired by Paul Klee
Swiss painter and graphic artist, Paul Klee, is known for his child-like use of line and color.... maybe that's why kids relate so well to his work! The influence of Surrealism, Expressionism, and Cubism is easily seen in his art, yet he really had a style all his own. This project is inspired by his painting, "Fish Magic", where he combines traditional underwater imagery … [Read more...]
Blossoming “Popcorn Trees”
Spring has sprung, and to celebrate, our Kinders painted trees blossoming with flowers made of popcorn! This lesson reinforces the color mixing skills we've been working on all year, as well as teaches a basic technique for drawing/painting trees. Adding popcorn also gives the opportunity to talk about the concept of "mixed media". And who doesn't love … [Read more...]
Self-Portraits Inspired by Grant Wood
Grant Wood (1891-1942) was an American artist best known for his paintings of rural American life. My students were fascinated by the story of how his father died when Grant was only ten years old, and his mother had to move her family from their home on the farm to the big city. This was a hard move for Grant, who missed his farm animals and his life in the country. … [Read more...]
Cezanne-Inspired Still Life – a Step Further!
I was so happy with the results that my Kinders had with our Cezanne-inspired still life paintings, that I wanted to take it a step further with my 1st grade classes.... As I showed my 1st graders some of Cezanne's still life paintings, we noticed that you could often see a dark edge around many of his shapes. So, this time after we finished "hiding the white paper" we used … [Read more...]
Cezanne-Inspired Still Life for K and Beyond
Today my Kinders learned about Impressionist artist Paul Cezanne, and painted a still life inspired by him. This lesson was so successful on so many levels! First, we talked about how Cezanne's father didn't encourage him in his art (he wanted him to be a banker or a lawyer), but he had a friend named Emil Zola who encouraged him to keep painting. Emil was a writer so the … [Read more...]
Thumbprint Self-Portrait
Here's a great idea I spotted on Pinterest.... I tried this lesson with my middle school students and they had so much fun with it! I originally used a copy machine to enlarge students' fingerprints. It was cumbersome and time-consuming. But then I figured out a faster, easier, and better way! For detailed instructions with photos, tips, writing prompts, a student gallery, and … [Read more...]
Gung Hey Fat Choy! Chinese New Year Dragons
Chinese New Year is right around the corner! Monday, January 23, 2012 will mark the start of the "Year of the Dragon", year 4709 on the Chinese calendar, where each year is designated by one of 12 animals. I thought a dragon project would be fun for my first graders as we usher out the "Year of the Rabbit" and welcome in the "Year of the Dragon"! We're making our dragons in … [Read more...]
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