HEARTS

Well, it's still February so I'm going to post one of the Valentine's Day lessons I did my K/1 class.......I might also use this lesson in for Mother's Day with one of my other classes.  When Mother's Day comes around I like to look through the Valentine's lessons because I think us mommy's can never get too many cards with hearts on them:)

It's a non-original idea, but I'd never tried this version before.
1.  Put heart stickers on paper.
2. Paint over heart stickers.
3. Let dry (by the time we had the desks and tables cleaned up from the painting, they were dry enough), and peel off the stickers.

I had a helper the day before the lesson, so I also decided to blue tape the borders of the white paper to a board to give the finished painting that beautiful white frame around it.

So super simple!  I did have a couple students who needed extra help on the concept.  They were painting pictures around the hearts, even though I explained and demonstrated the whole process.  They needed extra encouragement and communication to paint directly over the stickers.

Christmas Art 2012 - RoundUp!

Here are the art lessons I had fun sharing with my students during the month of December.  I teach at a Christian school and December is a very special month.

Kinder/1st Grade painted a starry night sky and pasted this poem on the bottom (ha, not really pasted, we used glue sticks.....do they even make that thick smelly white paste I used as a kid soooooo many years ago?)

A bright star lit the heavens

To light the Magi's way

To the baby in the manger

Who was born on Christmas day

Materials used:

white construction paper

blue and white tempera paint

q-tips for white stars

yellow construction paper stars

2nd Grade made poinsettia flowers and glued this poem at the bottom:

At Christmas as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ

Let's keep in mind the truth of Christmas Day

It's our gift of love to others, in every way

Materials used:

construction paper

we also used scrapbook paper for added interest in the green leaves

glue & glitter

3rd/4th grade made these awesome Moulding Trees and you can find more info. here.

5th grade painted angels.

They drew in pencil, outlined with black crayon, and painted with watercolors.

And Lastly 6th grade made Mini Manger Silhouettes.

We used canvas and acrylics.  Students did a practice silhouette first on paper same size as canvas.

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.

Father's Day "Heart Books"

These Heart Books were made by 1st graders.  (Note, I folded paper and drew half a heart on the fold for each child before the lesson because many of the 1st graders would have had a hard time drawing the half heart big enough for a book.  I also drew the half circles on the fold ahead of time.)

Step 1:  Kids cut both papers at the same time on the fold.  They also cut 3 half-circles on the fold too to create the holes for the yarn binding.

Step 2:  Thread yarn through the 3 holes and tie a know at the bottom.

Step 3:  Write and illustrate the book, "Why I Love You"

Winter on its way...bring out the penguins

My first graders made these penguins.

For drawing, I gave each student a cup to trace for the belly, then they drew their own arms, head, face, and feet.

Great Job NCCS 1st graders!!

Cute Little Bird

Thanks to Pinterest, I found this, thanks to Joy Sikorski:

How cute is he/she!!
My first graders had fun making their little birds.

Tweet-tweet, NCCS 1st Graders!

Mobile Fun in 1st Grade

First Graders made a class mobile and the pictures don't do it justice.  It really is special hanging from the ceiling in the classroom. (I didn't get a pic of that, but you can trust me:)
Materials:
2- 5"x5" pieces of white construction paper for ea. student.
markers, glue
one piece of wire for each student approx. 14" long
one large piece of wire bent into a wobbly circle shape & 2 pieces of wire attached to it to make a hanging hook, for the mobile base
hole punches to share
Steps:
Share some info. about Alexander Calder.  Here's the book I used "Getting to Know the World's Great Artists - Alexander Calder".
Demonstrate drawing 2 abstract shapes on each piece of paper then gluing them back sides together, and hole punching, adding the wire in hole, and attaching to mobile base.
Warn students about treating wire VERY carefully, show that it can poke eyes and fingers and all need to be careful.  Get students to pinky-swear they'll be careful then set them loose on project.

Way to go NCCS 1st Graders!!