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.