Native American Imagery

This is a lesson created by 4th graders.  It is a collection of images influenced by Native Americans.  It is an anything goes type of project, as long as it can be tied back to Indian Culture.  So, there is a nice range of images, from animals to flora and fauna, as well as masks and warrior dress.  These are done with a modern twist of color.  The art work is traced with sharpie and colored with art sticks.  I love using art sticks in the art room, it provides the color rich colors of a color pencil, without the hassle of sharpening...constantly!!   The project takes about 3 days total to finish.    

Eric Carle, The Honeybee and the Robber

A month or so ago, I posted one of the lessons I did with kindergarten on an Eric Carle lesson.  Typically, I do a different book for each of the classes.  This Eric Carle lesson is from The Honeybee and the Robber.

 Doing a different book with each class allows us to explore more books and keeps the lesson more fresh.  It does take more planning, but totally worth it when you see all the pieces on display.

 As with most lessons like this we are really working on our cutting and gluing skills.  The honeybee picture was my favorite this time around.  The kids were so proud of their work.

 

 For this lesson we had one day to paint the big papers.  I give each table a color to paint, and we share the painted papers.  Then, we had one day to cut and paste the flower and draw out the grass.  On the third day we cut and put together the honeybee.  We need a little more time from one more class to finish up the details on the honeybee. 

Wrapping up 2014

Oh my, it is 2015... I can't believe how fast the year is flying by. Before we get too far into this twenty-fifteen year, I want to share a few projects from December.  The first is a little side project I did with my third graders who were done with all their work.  (which was most by the way)  We made beautiful marbled paper for the kids to create hand crafted cards.  And we did the marbling with shaving cream.  Now, I used to marble papers every year with marbling solution, which is messy, slimy, stinky (after a few days) and you have to prepare the day before.  I learned the hard way one year, mixing the marbling solution in the morning for my afternoon classes. Once I discovered marbling on shaving cream with watercolors, I won't go back- less prep time,  not stinky (it actually smells good), and cleanup is a cinch! 

 We marbled with greens, red, and several different gold liquid watercolors.

 Copy seems to be the best paper for this project.

 Several weeks ago I shared a couple Grinch art pieces I was doing with 3rd grade.  This is the last image I did with one of the classes.  I did this on the last day of school before the break.  I only had about 10 kiddos in this class, many of the students left after their class Christmas party.  

 Grinch and Max

 With 1st grade we did the snowmen looking up.  So it was a great introduction into looking at different perspectives.  We also did a mini lesson on cutting very small snowflakes.  They loved this and I had some great little leaders that were more than willing to help out friends and show off their cutting skills. It is so great seeing kids take on leader roles.

 The last project below is also another Pinterest favorite.  The kinder team of teachers asked us to do these with their students.  We don't make a habit of this, but we had just wrapped up our school wide art show and it didn't take much convincing!!