Winter Starry Nights

This was a quick filler project I did with 3rd grade. They learned about the artist Vincent Van Gogh through the World's Greatest Artist video series. They added the Cyprus tree and sky swirls using oil pastels, and then used cool water colors to paint in the background. The houses and trees were cut from construction paper. For the snow, I mixed up a glue and shaving concoction to create the fluffy snow effect. Quick, easy, and they turned out great!

Clay Heart Plaques

Another Jim Dine project. I did these with one 4th grade class at one of my schools, and with my art club kids.

Mixed Media Hearts

5^th graders learned about pop artist Jim Dine. Students created a mixed media art project using wood, nails, wire, magazine cut outs, and yarn. Students first painted their block of wood red. They then choose a love quote and cut the words or letters out from magazines, then glued them to the wooden block. Students then created a heart by using a hammer and nails to outline a heart shape. Students then wrapped the heart shape in yarn. Lastly, they created an arrow using wire. They turned out great, and each one is unique!

Painted Jim Dine Hearts

Third graders learned about the artist Jim Dine. They also learned about making tints. I gave them a big palette of all different colored paints, and then a small palette with just white. The small palette was their color mixing tray to mix tints. We used large brushes and used a stamping technique rather than fluid brush strokes.

Art Club Candle Holders

This was a quick and easy art club project we did when we finished one project and only had about 30 minutes left of one session. I bought candle holders at the dollar store and an illustrated fairy tail book at Goodwill. The students ripped out some illustrations they liked and cut to fit the candle holder. Then they modge podged the paper onto the candle holder. They could also add ribbon if they wanted. They look really cool lit up in the dark.

Art Club Felt Birds

I started an art club this year at my home school for grades 3-5. I thought it would be nice to offer some enrichment for those students who love art and crafting. We made these adorable felt birds that I saw on Pinterest. They took about 2 sessions to make. They did a great job with the whip stitch sewing part. I love doing sewing projects, but it is always hectic large classes because no one can get their needle threaded, or there are knots to untie. This is perfect for a small group!

Buurrrr! It's cold outside!

5th graders drew self portraits of themselves in winter weather gear. They loved this portrait project because it was a cropped portrait and they didn't have to draw their faces! We discussed proper proportion when drawing bodies. So they needed to pay attention to how big their hands were, how wide their shoulders were, the size of their neck, and the width of the rest of their body. They did a great job with all the details!
(This lesson was found an art ed blog, I'm forgetting who's at the moment, but thanks!)

Polar Bears

First graders learned all about polar bears through a video called TASHA THE POLAR BEAR. The video followed a young polar bear cub through her first year of life in the North Pole. First graders used ovals and circles to draw their polar using chalk pastels. They colored them in using a cotton ball and pastels. The second class we added the face details again with chalk, and created a patterned scarf from scraps of paper. As our last step we outlined in glitter:)

Snow Owls

2nd graders learned some fun facts about owls through a video on YouTube before we started this project. I had the students use a variety of painting techniques for this project. For the snowbank and the tree I had students use a small piece of cardboard as their paint brush. For the owls, students used their thumb and fingerprints to make the owl body. I wanted students to realize that you can use a wide variety of materials as a painting tool. They used small paint brushes for the snowflakes. The second class we reviewed horizontal, vertical, and slanted lines. We used those lines for our tree details, and also added details to complete our birds. Lastly we outlined in glitter:)

MITTENS

First graders read the story THE MITTEN by Jan Brett. I had traced all the mitten shapes ahead of time for the students. We discussed what collage and overlapping means.Students used a wide assortment of patterned paper to cut out into shapes and then glue them to their mitten. They had to make sure to OVERLAP their papers so we couldn't see much of the background. We also added some felt leaves and berries, and the students practiced their bow tying skills to tie their mittens together.
(This lesson was found on Artsonia)