More Spooky Silhouettes!

I LOVE this lesson. They are so whimsical and so much fun!!!! (And my kiddos really enjoy doing seasonal things, too....I used to be SO anti-seasonal art, but somewhere in the midst of it all I found that it's possible to do seasonal art that ties in with a curricular standard..YAY!)



I give the students a 9x12" sheet of paper and a black marker, along with some ideas and choices in which to consider. I have them draw everything in silhouette, no details, etc. The only two things we draw together are the spooky house and the "Y" tree. Students then use a hole punch to punch out the white eyes. They draw black dots inside the circles and glue them on to make glowing eyes :)

I did this project last year using a 6 x 18 sheet of paper and they turned out great, too. This year we just decided to add in a spooky house, hence the change in paper size.

If you would like a PDF of template drawings for this project, please visit my Teachers Pay Teachers site for a FREE download. Thanks so much and have SPOOKY day!

Perspective Pumpkin Patches

I recently did this lesson with my second graders to teach them about perspective and distance. We first used pencil to draw our guide lines (the horizon line, vanishing point, and perspective lines in the "patch".) Students then used crayon to color the pumpkins in, draw and color the barn, etc.

They then used black watercolor paint and painted the ENTIRE painting resist-style. It made it look like it was night time, which was great.

Some of these aren't yet dry, which is why you still see blobs of black paint on the crayon. Usually that dries and it doesn't look like that. I just wanted to get them photographed before they walked out the door.

This was a fun Fall project with great results that the students enjoyed! No new technique or ground-breaking lesson here, just a little something I wanted to share from my Art Room to yours.

Hot and Cool Reflective Landscspes

This was a great project I recently did with my Fourth Graders to teach them about printmaking (amongst many other concepts...!)

We started with a white piece of 12x18 paper, folded it in half (long-ways/"hot dog style") and painted hot-colored watercolor on top and cool-colored watercolors beneath the folded horizon line. (*are you already seeing how many vocabulary words are used in this lesson?!)

On Day 2 we created our printing plates using sheets of styrofoam (they were 9x12 sheets, I cut them in half so they would fit perfectly) and the kids used pencil to draw/etch a skyline. They cut the negative space off the top of the printing plate. Students then rolled black water-based ink over their printing plate (I like to use Speedball water-based printing ink--- semi-pricey but sticks to they styrofoam marvelously and transfers great too!)

They printed the first print in the hot-colored section (the "sky") and did a ghost print in the beneath it in the blue section (the "water"). I know it's not a direct reflection, but it still works and you can barely tell that it's not a direct reflection!

Vocabulary used in this lesson (and I'm sure there are a zillion I've missed): hot colors, cool colors, color scheme, reflection, horizon line, printing plate, etching, ink, brayer, print, printmaking, skyline, citicscape, reflection, ghost print.)

I've used other methods of printing over the years and haven't printed much with styrofoam at all (mainly because of price!) but I'm glad I pulled this lesson from the vault because the kids LOVED it and learned SO MUCH! I loved overhearing their conversations while they were printing. They really were using the correct vocabulary which made my heart swoon!

In My Perspective

This was a quick little one and a half day project (my classes are 55 minutes) which focused on perspective and pattern. The lesson is sort of self-explanitory...I just want to give you a few tips that I used for good results:

1. We used 18" rulers to draw the horizon line in BLACK SHARPIE. I'm really trying to have my students use pencil less because they are relying on their erasers too much. I want to teach them to be confident in their work and to work with mistakes if they make them.

2. We know the difference between reality and artistic freedom. I allowed the students some artistic freedom as they drew their patterns in their "crops"---as well as the colors used.

3. (without showing them) I asked..."how would you draw wind using green, blue, and purple?" and you can see their results...all sort of similar. So glad they paid attention to the VanGogh unit in First Grade! Ha!

This is a great lesson which gives fantastic, easy results.

Fall Leaf Stamping

This is a project I do every year with my Kindergartners to show them how to print. Because in Florida we're lacking a bit in the "Fall Leaves" department, rubber stamps will have to do!

I do this by teaching centers again (I have 9 tables in my room, so I have 3 sets of red, orange, and yellow paints/leaves set up). The students rotate after they've printed 3 leaves of one color to the next station.

I also extended the lesson into my first grade classes as well! They had done this lesson last year (obviously) in Kindergarten, but I switched it up on them and they printed 8 white leaves on black paper. They then used red, orange, and yellow sponge stampers to fill in the background. On day 2 they embellished their white flowers with COOL colored oil pastels.

I quite like the white leaves on the black paper! I would perhaps do this again for winter next year with some glitter or snowflakes or something fun to embellish.

Pumpkin Sun Catchers

This was an adorable little project I did with my Kindergartners! It is featured over at PreK and K Sharing today if you'd like to find out more!

Britto Pumpkins

My fifth graders just completed these adorable pumpkins in the style of Romero Britto. I was inspired by this lesson from a pin I saw on Pinterest here. Because Britto is a Miami-based artist, this project hits a LOT of standards for teaching students about local artists!

What is also a fun tidbit of information is that Britto has the first "floating" art gallery...on Royal Caribbean's "Oasis of the Seas"! I love teaching students about Britto because all his work is identifiable to children, colorful, and seeminly simple! Once I show the students his work they usually recognize something.

Students also used their initials somewhere in their work as a graphic element.

These projects are quite large, 18"x18". Size matters ;)

Happy Fall, ya'all!