Rainbow in Bloom

Lois Ehlert's book, " Planting a Rainbow," was the inspiration for this art project. In this book, flowers of the colors of the rainbow were planting. The children painted rainbow gardens after reading this book.
We used large pale green paper that was donated by a business to our school.
Each child was given a paper plate to be used as a palette.
We started with green paint and painted stems and leaves about a third of the way up the paper.
Then went back to the left side of the paper and painted a red bloom.
We continued with orange, yellow, green ferns, blue, and purple flowers.
Then added Sunshine and clouds to complete our pictures.
Some students mixed the colors on the palette together to create "dirt."
The results: beautiful rainbow gardens!

Crawling Caterpillars

All kids love Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillars. I decided that this was the perfect inspiration to teach kids to draw movement.
1. Draw a horizontal squiggly line across a piece of horizontal white paper.
2. Glue a precut oval shape for the head at the left side of the paper. This should be glued over the squiggly line.
3. Paint green ovals over the squiggly line until you get to the end.
I gave each child a palette of yellow and green, so they could have different shades on the caterpillar segments.

Castle Collographs

Castles were the inspiration for my Middle School collograph project.

The base of the plate was made from squares of corrugated cardboard,( recycled from moving boxes).

Castles were researched and designed by each student.

I collected cereal boxes, etc. to be used to make the layers of the castles.

Castle pieces were cut from cereal box cardboard.

These were assembled with white glue .

When dry, they were inked with printers ink.

Prints were pulled.

"Whoooooo" Stuffed Animals-Owls

Kids love stuffed animals, and making their own is such an engaging experience.

This is how we did it:

1. Start with a rectangles of unbleached muslin, about 8"x10". Rectangles - because you can sew a rectangle fast.

2. Using Sharpies or fabric crayons, draw on the fabric to make an owl.

3. Then, I iron over each piece to heat set the color .

4. I stitch around the fabric using scrap fabric from my "stash " for the back, leaving an opening .

5. Stuff with fiber fill.

6. Stitch the opening shut.

Some students were naming their owls, writing stories, etc.

A little labor intensive for me, but worth it!

The Treasure Box

So much of my childhood influences my art teaching as well as my artwork. My elementary education took place in the best possible setting- the One Room School. Since my teacher had to teach Kindergarten through 6th grade, art was one of those subjects that couldn't be grade specific. So on Fridays, last thing, everyone did the same art project. These projects had to be open ended, so everyone could do them. And we all brought TREASURE BOXES. TREASURE BOXES were shoe boxes filled with the most marvelous things- bits of rickrack and lace, buttons from grandma's button jar, knobs, broom straw, yarn, string,bits of cloth....... Oh, the things you could create! It cost nothing and opened up the imagination!
I am sure that is why I am a mixed media collage artist and so many of my projects for kids have those elements.
So, I continue to have TREASURE BOXES- old Scrabble tiles, buttons, yarn, nothing has changed too much.

Pumpkin Patch

I found a large quantity of the fabric used for this project on super clearance. Since it was on sale, of course I had to buy it thinking there would be a use for it someday.
Years later, I got the idea of making a pumpkin patch with my second grade class. As I was looking for fabric, I remembered that orange circle fabric I had in my stash.
The students drew pumpkins on paper and traced around with sharpie on fabric. I cut these out with a pinking shears and sewed around , leaving an opening for stuffing.
The students stuffed these pumpkins with pillow stuffing. I sewed the openings together.
Students glued on felt eyes, nose, etc.

                                        From "ugly" fabric to a super cute pumpkin patch

Drawing with a Stick

Once upon a time when I was in a college drawing class, we picked up sticks, dipped them in ink, and did drawings outside. I always liked the way that drawing with a stick made you draw with a beautiful broken line.
This is how I did this project with my middle school art classes.
1. I collected an assortment of glass and plastic containers before they went into the recycling bin. ( syrup bottles, canning jars, olive oil, juice, etc.) This is our still life.
2. The students created compositions by sketching an arrangement of containers using a pencil.
3. Pencils lines were redrawn by dipping a stick into tempera paint.
4. Chalk was lightly applied.

Owls-glue batik

I love using this technique. It's so easy to do. I use unbleached muslin, torn into about 8"x12" pieces for each student. I hem the top about 3" under to create a casing for sticks to hang the artwork. 

1. Draw your owl on the flat side of freezer paper.

2, Turn over to the glossy side of the freezer paper and lay the muslin on top. 

3. Trace around the design with gel glue.

4. Let dry.

5. Paint with acrylic paint and let dry.

6. Soak in hot water until the glue is dissolved.

7. Iron or heat set in the clothes 

drier,

8. Put a stick through the casing and tie yarn or string on to hang.

Matisse Inspired Still Life with a Window

After a study of Matisse still life's, my fifth grade class created their own Matisse inspired still life's. The requirements were: a window, pattern in at least three spaces, and a table. Markers were used.
The scene outside the window had to be inspired by nature and demonstrate the use of perspective.

Tiptoe Through the.......

Spring has sprung and so have the tulips, perfect for a still life using WATERCOLORS.I brought in a vase of cut tulips. We made a simple crayon drawing and painted over with water colors , making a point to use more than one color on the petals.

SIMPLE BUT BEAUTIFUL!

Bee Mine

Valentines Day is always buzzing with excitement, so the kindergartens practiced their cutting skills and made these colorful bumblebees. All it took were lace doilies with a cut out triangle to make heart wings. Ovals were cut out of yellow paper for the bodies. Black stripes were added, although some chose to make black with yellow stripes.

Be My Little Chickadee

I love making heart animals with children at Valentines Day and chickens are my favorite!
Materials: colored and scrapbook paper for background, paper doilies, heart stickers, and precut hearts( or the kids can cut their own.)
1. Make the background with patterned paper about 1/3 the size of the colored paper. I like to use 8"x10".
2. Turn a large heart( about the size of your hand) and glue it on the bottom of the page upside down.
3. Add heart doily wings, yellow upside down feet, heart stickers for the comb, and a half of a heart for the wattle.
I enjoyed the personality of each chicken!

Hatch!

Baby chicks hatching is one of my favorite things about Spring. Our art lesson today is inspired by my childhood memories of watching the tiny new chick peck its way out of its shell. I brought in a beanie baby chick to start the art conversation with my students.
1. I had an assortment of pastel colored papers for my students to choose for their background.
2. Each student was given a piece of 4"x6" white paper. They drew an oval the size of their paper and then cut it out. Crooked hatching lines were drawn in the middle of the halves and then cut on these lines. These eggshells were glued on the paper, leaving a space for their chicks.

3. Eyes and beaks were drawn where they wanted their chicks to be. These were colored darkly with crayons.                    
4. Using round foam applicators, chicks were painted.
5. Flowers and everything Spring were drawn to complete their compositions.

 

Hatching Chicks!

Little Red Robin

age:1-2 grades

Media: paint

Materials: paint- red, brown, yellow, and green paint, Tru Ray paper- light blue, brushes, Googly eyes, black crayons

Skills: painting shapes to represent a bird
Look at pictures of robins. Sketch with a black crayon. Add a half circle to be painted red for the robin's chest. Paint brown* . Add a beak, legs,Googly eye, and a rubber worm, ladybug stickers, etc. to complete you artwork.

* use paper plates for palettes. Make brown paint by mixing, red, yellow, and green.

I 

Lady Bug, Lady Bug......

ages: preschool - 1st grade
Media: paint
Materials: tru Ray colored paper- light blue , black, red, and green tempera paint, Googly stick on eyes, black crayons, paint brushes
Skills: drawing shapes and relating shapes to each other, applying paint with a brush

1. Sketch an oval almost as big as your paper, saving room on the top for half of a small circle.
2. Attach half of a circle on the large oval.
3. The oval is the body. Draw a line down the center a little more than half way down.
4. Split the line in two directions to make a triangle. Now you have wings.

5. Draw circles for spots on the body.
6. Draw swirl lines for antennae.
7. Stick Googly eyes on the head.
8. Use black paint for head, spots, and triangle area.
9. Use red paint for everything else.
10. Paint green grass from the bottom of the page up because that is how grass grows.