"Christmas Eve" Collages

"Christmas Eve" by Henri Matisse was our inspiration 

for these collages.  

They were done by 3rd graders:)

Here is the original, by Matisse.

HOOT-HOOT

Are owls more popular now than they were in the 70's?  I remember making LOTS of macrame owls back then, hmmmmmm what did all those people do with those macrame owls I made for them Christmas?

My Kinder/1st graders made these owls.  Lots of cutting and tracing prep, but it was worth it.  Even with all the pre-made parts, it still took two full periods.
Here are the materials that the students received for the project:

 1st Day - Each child received white construction paper w/ owl parts already traced on it.

2nd Day - Each child received black background paper, grey paper w/ tree branches already traced, 2 yellow eyes, 2 black eyes, 2 feet, 1 beak, 1 moon traced.

Here's the order we used:
1st Day
1.  Traced outlines on owl parts and added feathers and face features with crayon.
2.  Painted all owl parts with watercolors.

2nd Day
3.  Cut & glue tree parts onto background.
4.  Cut & glue owl parts onto background.
5.  Glue face parts onto owl.

6. Cut & glue moon onto background.

Folk Art Style

Big thanks to Holly V. at Lines Dots & Doodles for posting this fun Folk Art lesson.  I had never seen Karla Gerard's artwork before, and it's wonderful inspiration!

These were done by 5th graders and we took 2 class periods to do these paintings.  First we studied the patterns and variety in Karla Gerard's examples that I put on the board.

Then student's drew a rough draft version of their landscape on scratch paper.  Then a real version on construction paper.  Next every line was traced with oil pastels.

Next meeting, the kids painted their pictures with watercolors.

Inspiring Works?

Hmmmm, which artwork has inspired more art lessons than any other?  

For me, it's Kandinsky's "Farbstudie Quadrate" Concentric Circles.  Closely followed by Van Gogh's Starry Night.  Van Gogh's Sunflowers probably comes in third.  

Which famous artwork do you never get tired of using as a source of inspiration for an art lesson?

The pics here were done by my high school students.  

They used acrylics on heavy paper.  Size 6"x8".

I could look at these all day!!!  Thanks NCCS HS students!

3D Paper Scrolls

 NCCS High School

I found this great lesson here, and I thank Miriam for sharing it.  My students enjoyed the lesson very much.  I enjoyed it because it's not as hard as it looks!

First I taught how to make a 3D paper scroll by starting with a curly-que at the top, then attaching vertical lines on the sides of each curve.  Lastly shading the sides.

Students chose colored construction paper.  Drew and shaded a 3D scroll on each color with colored pencils.  Cut them out. Arranged them on their paper.  Then they drew "ghost scrolls" behind the colored scrolls.  Lastly, they cut off the bottom of their paper so all the scrolls touched the bottom.  Another time I taught the lesson, students drew a box with white pencil and then "ghost scrolls" behind the colored scrolls.

 NCCS high school

 5th Grade

POSTERS for your classroom!

      Posters for your classroom, created by your students!

"Poster", "Poster with Theme", "MEGA Poster"

     

I can't tell you how long I've been working on these POSTERS!  Lots of glitches along the way, but I'm sooooo very excited to finally have my first ones available.
More coming soon!  Oops, did I just say soon?  I must be quite the optimist because these took approximately 25 x longer than I expected.  So many percolating projects in my head, hard to get any of them to fruition.
Huge thanks to my DEAR Friend, wonderful mom, senior olympics soccer player, uber community/school volunteer, and awesome Graphic Artist & Web Designer Eileen Vavra!

Fall Leaves

Oil pastels on black construction paper never fails to impress, don't you think?!

For this lesson we practiced a few different types of leaf drawings on scratch paper.  We also talked about complementary (opposite) colors on the color wheel and how the leaves will pop if they used complementary colors for the backgrounds.

Also, for a switch this time, when I taught the kids how to draw the leaves, I had them draw the stem and veins first, then the border of the leaf last.  I think this method worked better, especially for maple and oak leaves.  I also think this method helped the kids draw bigger.  Finally I didn't see any teeny-tiny leaves.  Do you ever feel like a broken record reminding kids not to draw too small?  That line is probably in my top 10 reminders to the kids..........(Now don't get me started on the other 9, my current relaxed state may disappear:)

Kids were each give two 3 1/2" x 5" black pieces of paper for the leaf drawings, and a 9x12" black paper for background.  After gluing on the leaves, they outlined the drawings w/ contrasting pastel colors if they had time.

Owls for fall.....

My 6th grade class did Owl Drawings last week.  We used black construction paper and chalk pastels.  Also, I decided to tape down the sides on a back board to keep the edges of the drawing clean.  This created a nice black border.  I love the borders on artwork when the blue tape is used.  Funny though, because the kids never seem to be as impressed with the difference between "with or without" a border, as I am.  They're more focused on their art, as it should be.  Kids always teaching us what's important and what's not, eh!

Found this on Pinterest, but sad to say I can't find the link now?  But here's a link to some more inspirational OWLS.

Thanks NCCS 6th Graders!!

Colors & Shapes

Whew!!! Finally posting.......too many plates spinning these days, can you relate????

My 2nd graders did this lesson last week.  I thought it was successful and I love the clean simple aspect of the colors on black.

First I gave students this white paper which had these shapes already drawn on it.  (note * If I had the kids more than 40 min. twice/month, I'd have them draw their own shapes.)

Then the students cut and glued their white shapes on black background.

Next, the students chose various pieces of colored construction paper and cut out smaller and smaller circles and oval shapes. 

And here is the gorgeous quilt that I saw on Pinterest that inspired this lesson.

This amazing quilt was created by Carol, her artistry is admirable & you'll find her blog HARD TO LEAVE!