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.

"Owls in the Moonlight" by fourth grade

I love these owl paintings. The students used paintbrushes, cardboard pieces, their thumbs, and the backs of their paintbrushes to create these moonlit paintings. The owl details were added on with sharpie markers. Last year's class did them on light blue paper with a big yellow moon, but I thought it looked too much like day. So, this year we switched to purple paper and added a moon with a cool blue glow around them. I think they represent nighttime better now. I got the idea from http://kidsartists.blogspot.com/2010/12/owls-in-night.html. It's a great art blog!

Some finished pieces...

Whooo Whooo Whooo does Cool Artwork?

Grade 4 does cool artwork!! We had a fun time creating our "Owls at Night". I tried a new painting/printing technique for this project. Each student got a wedge of cardboard with two straight edges and one rounded edge, which they dipped into white paint and pressed or rolled onto blue 12"x18" paper. They focused on creating thick tree trunks and thinner branches while remembering to leave spaces to fit in their owls. The owls were made from their thumb prints which they added details to with Sharpies and art sticks. I think they are adorable!! What do you think?

The moons were created using yellow art sticks and the snow was brushed onto the bottom and printed onto the sky using Q-tips.

Back before Christmas break they also painted these beautiful holiday bouquets using only a few colors of paint (red, green, white, and yellow) and mixing them to create new colors. They each designed they own vase and then painted in the flowers. I love all the different types of flowers they used in their bouquets. Gorgeous!!