Fall Birch Trees by 2nd Grade

     The second grade created these great birch tree paintings this fall. They had a lot of fun. First they painted the white stripes for the tree trunks. When they were dry, they added yellow paint for the leaves, and added in a bit of orange to add interest. Finally, when the paint had dried, they used black crayon to add details to the bark and outline the trees.

Van gogh Inspired Flowers

     This lesson was completed by my 8th grade students. First, they were given 6 tempra paint colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple), plus black and white for tinting and shading. I did a lesson on mixing colors and using black and white to create tints and shades of the different colors. Next, we examined Van gogh's famous artwork, Sunflowers, discussing his use of the 8 elements of art. The students were then encourage to create a bouquet of flowers inspired by Van gogh. Finally, they were asked to paint their sketches using colors created by mixing the primary and secondary colors at their disposal. In the end, they created tints and shades of their colors to add shadows and highlights to their artwork. They did a great job...

Owls & Fireflies

Do you remember the book, Sam and the Firefly? Well, it's an oldie for sure...

It was one of my favorite books as a child. The pictures were so much fun in my eyes. I loved how the story took place at night and how the illustrator used dark pages with bright yellow to show the glow of the moon, eyes, and fire fly. I remember my grandmother reading it to me. I came aross it and decided to share it with my kinders. Then, we did a fun crayon resist project, drawing owls and fire flies and then painting over it with a cool glowy, nighttime, green watercolor paint. 

I think they are adorable, and love the bright yellow moons, owl eyes,  and fire fly bottoms!

I know school has been over for a bit, but I just came across these pictures on my computer and decided to share.

I hope all my fellow art teachers are enjoying (or enjoyed, if you are back already) their summer. I have one month left! Looking forward to hearing about all your fabulous lessons and hope to be sharing more of mine as I look to the fall.

Name Towers by 6th grade

These are some fun name towers made by my 6th grade students. They were given the task of drawing the letters in their name to resemble a tall pile of letters. We discussed how the pile should have a wide base and the letters should appear to grow smaller as the move toward to top of the pile. I then asked them to fill in the pile with areas of solid color and line design. I think they did a nice job!

Van gogh Inspired Winter Trees by Seventh Grade

First of all, my original inspiration for this lesson came from a wonderful blog, http://marymaking.blogspot.com/2011/12/winter-landscapes-with-van-gogh.html. If you are looking for some great art lessons, check out Mary's blog!!!!

I love the way these turned out. The 7th grade students were asked to create a winter sky inspired by Van gogh's Starry Night. They worked on getting color, texture, and movement into their skies. I tried not to over explain or over instruct. I rally wanted they to come up with their own unique perspective of what the sky should look like. The next week, they added the bare winter trees and snowflakes. They are just so beautiful. Here are some finished ones...