Ink Printing with Foamboard

 We did the above project in October with Mr. Fischer's fifth grade class.  I really liked the look of the gelatin printing, but I wanted to try something a little different.  I got the idea and directions for the Radial Symmetry printing here.  I hope I'm not ruining someone else's post, but below are pictures of prints that Mrs. Dodd's first grade class did recently using the same method, but without the symmetry concept I used with the fifth grade.  I think they are great examples of how you can use ink in different grades.

Snowy Snowmen

I had pictures of this entire process and they have been lost or deleted!  If I find them I will post. 

For this project you will need:

• blue construction paper
• white and orange paint, and any other colors for hat/scarf
• black pastels
• qtips for dotting after pics are done, paintbrushes
• paint plates, palettes
• I highly recommend getting a helper for this project!  I did it alone and it worked out fine, but just one extra pair of eyeballs and hands would have been awesome.

I talked to the students about perspective and drawing parts of objects.  I drew a typical snowman and then zoomed way in to reveal just his face.  You still know its a snowman, but have a different view, perspective, of the snowman. 

I took these first graders step by step through the whole process of drawing our zoomed in snowman.  It seemed to work best to all be on the same step with this age group.

We used black oil pastel to draw the details, then painted them in, and once they were somewhat dry, finished up the facial features.

The workroom has all of the supplies needed.  Going through the pastels to find enough black took a chunk of time, so plan ahead if you need specific colors for any projects.

This also required a bit of cleanup at the end.  The desks were easily cleaned with come Clorox wipes.  The brushes however, I would recommend bringing something to take them home in and clean them there.  I did it in the classroom sink and it took a long time and was messy.  Plus you don't get any warm water.

The students really enjoyed this and were proud of their work.  They don't get to paint very often, so they were excited!

Glittery Snowflakes



 

This was a simple art project that fit well within the 40 minutes I have for art.  I think it would work well for most ages too.  These first grade kids had a great time and seemed proud of their creations.

 

I began with the overhead, showing pictures of real snowflakes.  I pointed out that they are all different, with no two ever being the same even though they may look very similar.  They all have 6 branches, and that each branch has the same design on them. 

 

Leaving the overhead on for design ideas, I had the students draw a few snowflakes on a black sheet of construction paper.  I tried to emphasize that they needed to keep their design simple, make it big, and leave lots of room between details so the glue wouldn't run together.  Some kids listened, and a lot didn't. They tried though! 

After penciling their snowflakes, they traced them with glue.  Once the glue was on, they came over to the glitter station.  

 

The glitter station was 3 cardboard box lids.  They sprinkled, dumped, and showered their page with glitter, then tapped off all the extra.  Once this was finished, they put their pages on the wire rack to dry. 



 

 The potential for a glitter disaster is big, but the box lids really kept things contained.  I highly suggest using containers with tall sides to help keep it all at bay.  We just dumped the remaining glitter back into the shakers.   

 

 

Voila!

 

Everything is in the workroom except images of snowflakes.

• Black contruction paper
• glitter
• glue
• pencils
• box lids or containers

After-School Art Program

Art parents: If you can help, we could use you from 4 to 4:45 PM on Mondays, starting January 6th! We had an overwhelming response to our PTA-sponsored after-school art program and could use some extra hands to check kids in and out and monitor during instruction time. Let Whitney know if you can be there (whether just once or often, we'd love to see you!).

Pumpkin Perspective Pastels

Final pumpkin/fall project of the year!  Hooray!  This was an easy, fun, and successful project for Mrs. Dodds first grade class.  It would be suitable for all ages and easily adapted to the current season.  I copied the idea from www.oodlesofart.blogspot.com. 

 

I had a finished sample up on the board, and I also used the overhead and did a step by step with the kids.  To do it any other way would have been difficult. 

 

All of the supplies were in the workroom art mom cabinets and were easy to find.

 

As we progressed through the project I would take a few moments to explain simply the concepts of perspective, the use of chalk pastels, blending and shading, and then the leaf rubbings.
 

 

Everything cleaned up with a little soap and water, and Clorox wipes. 

 

 Pretty good for first graders, right? 

 

 

I would say it was a success, the students really enjoyed it!

Items used:

• white paper
• chalk pastels, orange, yellow, greens, brown
• sharpies
• leaves
• hairspray to set the chalk after final tap-off

The hairspray does make the paper curl but it was NBD. 

In 2 weeks I will be doing this art project from deepspacesparkle!  Wish me luck!

Art Education is Important!!!

Two important links from Americans for the Arts.

Getting Started...why art education is important, etc.

Facts and Figures

Wild Things!

We had a lesson about textures today. After a demonstration of actual vs implied texture, we looked at the great examples of how lines can imply texture in Maurice Sendak's book, Where The Wild Things Are.   Here are some of the exciting wild things that Andrus students created: