"Dragons" by Grade 5

Love these dragons drawn by my 5th grade artists. I drew some sample dragon parts on the board, wings, claws, horns, spikes, fire, smoke, etc… I also drew a sample dragon picture. They were given the option of using a simple head-shape tracer and then adding on, if they were not comfortable drawing the head. I think the came out great!

"Close, Closer, Closest Snowmen" by Grade 7

This is a cool perspective lesson that I have been doing for a few years. I remember getting the idea a few years ago somewhere, but I can't remember where, so I apologize if it was your idea and I don't give you credit. Feel free to comment and let me know! Although I only have 24 followers (sad face) so I somehow doubt the original lesson planner will stumble across my post. If you are reading this and are not a follower of my blog, please join! I'd love to feel that my students' audience is growing.

Anyway, the object of this lesson was for my students to draw the SAME snowman three times as if they were digitally zooming in on a picture. They needed to take the whole picture into consideration, and also add more details and texture as they got closer to their snowman. Many of them found it was not as easy as it sounds! Some of them were quite successful.

Crazy Cool Cats!! by 3rd grade

These cats are cool! The third grade designed these cat heads using oil pastels. They are pretty abstract.  I love them! They really enjoyed coming up with designs for their cats!! You may have seen them hanging outside the 3rd grade room.

A while back they also completed a project that focused on overlapping in a picture. They designed their own birds while overlapping them on 12"x18" drawing paper. They colored them in using art sticks. Here are some of the results...

Floating Spheres by 7th Grade

The seventh grade has been working on creating areas of shadow in their artwork. This week we finished up a lesson using overlapping and shading to creating a 3-D floating effect. They used compasses to create perfect circles on their papers. Then they filled them in with primary or secondary colored pencils attempting to create the desired shadow on each sphere to make it appear to be floating.
Here are some of their attempts...

3,2,1...Action!! Snowmen by Grade 6

One of my favorite winter children's books is Snowmen at Night. It's fun to imagine what snowmen would do when no one is watching. The sixth grade and I spent some time discussing this topic. We talked about how they would stick to outdoor winter activities so they would not melt. The students came up with a fabulous list of activities for their snowmen. As you look through the following examples of their artwork you will see snowmen skiing, snowboarding, sledding, playing hockey, having a snowball fight, and figure skating.
You may also notice that they use colored art sticks and make a good attempt at shading, just like the 5th grade did with their portrait snowmen. I think of this as a continuation of the portrait snowmen they do when they are in 5th grade. It is a chance to apply the same skills to a similar, but still fresh, project. They will do it again in 7th grade when they work on our Close, Closer, Closest Snowman project. There is a sample of that project at the end. A glimpse into their art world of next year! Enjoy...

sledding 

sledding

snowboarding

sledding

snowball fight!

figure skating

skiing

skiing

figure skating

snow shoeing

hockey

figure skating

A glimpse at next year's project!