Watercolor Zentanlges

This is an easy and very successful project that I typically do with my fifth or sixth graders, but can be adapted for younger grades.

Materials:

Watercolor paper

Watercolor paints/brushes

Coarse salt

Sharpie markers

Large pan of water

Students first dip their paper in a dish of water (make sure their name is penciled on the back first). Place paper onto a construction paper blotter and carry to their seat.

Use a wet on wet technique to add "blobs" of color onto the paper. Teacher should stress that students should not try to make pattern or design, just focus on adding blobs of interesting colors. Sprinkle with salt and observe what happens as the salt absorbs the water and color.

When the paper is totally dry, scrape off salt and begin to add patterns with sharpies. Have students brainstorm different patterns. I usually have the students add them to the whiteboard, so other students can see their interesting ideas. Fill the whole paper with interesting designs and patterns. I usually stress the smaller and fancier the patterns, the more effective the finished picture will be.

Kindergarten Collage Castle

This year the Kindergarten students worked really hard to create these beautiful collage castles for our annual art show.  The project was broken down into several smaller one day projects and then put together into a finished product.

Students first began by painting and stamping a piece of paper for their grass.  The students were given several colors of green paint and asked to paint their entire paper with one color.  Next they used found objects to dip in green, blue, and white paint and printed on top of their painted papers.  We let these papers dry and moved onto the next step.

Students then created a beautiful sparkly sky.  We began the lesson by talking about cool colors.  The kindergartners were given Glitter paint (Sargent Brand) and had to paint their entire paper with plenty of sparkly paint.  They used notched cardboard scrapers to add swirls and designs to their sky.

We then created a castle on a small piece of tag board and painted them with silver paint.  The castles were cut out-- with some help from me and volunteers.

The collage was put together on the last day.  The students drew a wavy "ground line" on the back of their green paper and cut it out.  They attached their ground to the sky, being careful to line up the bottom, and then glued on their castle.  Students added clouds and used oil pastels to add details to their fabulous creations. 

These castles took awhile to create, but the result was outstanding!!!  They looked great when displayed alongside their clay kings and queens.

Common Core Connections: Easy Primary Color Mixing

Here is a great quick elementary art activity that has connections to the common core! I did this exercise with 1st graders and they really enjoyed it.  I began the lesson by introducing the primary colors. Then I demonstrated how to use watercolor pencils to mix colors (this would be easily adaptable to any type of paint--although it might be messier). I showed the students how to work with the watercolor pencils, and instructed them to draw circles (about the size of an Oreo cookie) and mix two primary colors at a time.  I talked about how Crayola crayons have funky names and told them they had the task of naming the colors they created.  I showed them a reddish orange and had the class come up with a name.  Then I told them I had a great name "sunshine orange" and had them explain to me how we could create that color using the watercolor pencils (add more yellow watercolor pencil and just a smidgen of red). This really engaged their critical thinking skills and had the students use the concepts we learned to solve a non-routine problem. 

 

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.1.5 With guidance and support from adults, demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meanings.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.L.5 Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.1.5d Distinguish shades of meaning among verbs differing in manner (e.g., look, peek, glance, stare, glare, scowl) and adjectives differing in intensity (e.g., large, gigantic) by defining or choosing them or by acting out the meanings.

My little artist

Second Grade Toucans

My second grade students have been working quite fastidiously on these festive toucans, and finally they are complete!  First the students learned a little about toucans and sketched one using a black crayon on a 12x 18 in piece of white tag board.  We then worked carefully to paint the background a shade a blue.  After the backgrounds were dry, the students painted the bodies of the toucans black and white.  I then demonstrated how to use water soluble oil pastels to create colorful beaks.  Finally students used the funky paper we created a few weeks ago to create flowers, leaves and any other details the students wished to add.  Overall, I think these came out fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!

Snowmen at night

Doesn’t everyone have a Snowmen at Night lesson these days??? This is one of my favorite books- it has a great wintry vibe, but without Santa! The illustrations are beautiful! The story has a great rhyming pattern to it. I have read this book to so many classes that I know it by heart. The kids seems quite intrigued by the fact that I can read the story without looking at the pages!

For this project I began by reading the kiddos (2nd grade) the story. On the first day of the lesson I have them a piece of 9×12 watercolor paper. They wrote their names in the back with pencil and then came over to my tray of water and dipped their paper. They did a wet on wet painting using the cool colors. They sprinkled a little salt on their paintings to give them a really cool added effect. The next class we looked at the beautiful illustrations and I demonstrated how to use oil pastels to shade the snowmen so they appeared to have a shadow on one side. The kids did a great job adding lots of little details to bring their paintings to life. I love the little cups of cocoa in their hands!

Bright flowers on a snowy day

I thought I would post this project I did a few years ago to brighten up a really snowy day... And week here in NJ!  It has been snowing quite a bit; we had a half day, and a snow day this week, and it snowed again yesterday! 

For this project the kids first started by making a pretty piece of painted paper.  They did a wet on wet painting and sprinkled it with salt.  We let them dry and they cut out a vase shape.  They divided their paper and had to create a pattern on the bottom half for the "tablecloth"they glued on their vase, few flowers and painted them with watercolor and hen used one color paint for the background.  I hung these up for our yearly art show and hey really looked awesome.