1st grade winter birch trees

1st grade winter birch trees

On the first day I showed students photos of birch trees in the winter. We then took small squares of cardboard and dipped them into black paint and scraped trees onto a 12" x 18" white drawing paper.
I have sponges soaked in paint for students to use for various projects such as printing. They come in handy. Remind students to gentle push them onto the sponge. Some students are rough with the cardboard and then they get bent and harder to work with it. This only took ten minutes. 

 Students then took a 6" x 18" piece of newsprint and trimmed the top to look like land. I taped the sides down for them to protect the bottom of their paper for when they started coloring with the oil pastels. This is to keep the ground clean.

I had them come to my desk when they were ready to have their papers taped. It saved a lot of time having the tape already torn!. 

Students could use either warm colored oil pastels or warm colored oil pastels to color the sky. I had them make smudgers with paper towels.

This took around 25-30 minutes. If students had time they could cut their birch trees and assemble them onto their ground (or do it the next class period). We tried using glue sticks at first but we found they didn't stick very well to the oil pastels, so we ended up using Elmer's school glue.   We reviewed background, foreground and middle ground and how to make the trees into an interesting arrangement. 

The last step was to add snow with a q-tip dipped into white paint. 

I probably could have had them add shadows, but I was afraid they might mess them up at this grade level. 

kindergarten self portrait puzzle pieces

Kindergarten self portrait puzzle pieces

I purchased these Royloc Puzzle Quilt pieces from an art catalog company.They were around $10 for 32 pieces.

Each student received one puzzle piece. We discussed the front and back of the puzzle and determined to put our names on the smooth side.
I then went around the room and placed their puzzle pieces in the right direction so that when we put the puzzle together everyone's faces would be facing in the same direction and no one would be upside down.
I had students draw a big oval in the air a couple of times so we could practice drawing an oval on a puzzle piece (we didn't want them small!).
Students then drew an oval on their puzzle piece, shoulders and then the details.
Lastly we traced them with a fine tip black marker and colored them with crayons.

I showed the book "The Color of Us" by Karen Katz on YouTube since I don't own a copy. We discussed our skin colors and how we are all different. I provided multicultural colored crayons for students to color their skin.
The children loved putting the puzzle together. I gave the puzzle pieces to their classroom teachers so they could put them together in one of their learning stations.

1st grade coffee filter snowflakes

1st grade snowflakes

Students folded a coffee filter into three's and then colored them with Mr. Sketch Markers (cool colors only). They colored both sides of their folded coffee filter. 

Students sprayed the front and the back of their coffee filter with water and laid them on the drying rack to dry for the next art class. This only took students around 15 minutes. Each student placed their coffee filter on a piece of paper with their name and teacher code on it so they could identify them at the next class. 

After they were dry we cut pieces off to make our snowflakes. I told them to cut little triangles, squares or circles. 

They were so excited with the results. 

I wasn't sure how my first graders would do with this project but they did great! Thanks to Jordan Caplan for showing me that this could be done with first grade! She also has a great youtube video if you want to see how she did it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOURmIkKe0Q&t=97s

Kindergarten Monet ponds

Kindergarten Monet Ponds

Part one.

Part two.

I found this great idea on Pinterest. I can't find the original user so if you know who created it first please e-mail me so I can give them credit.
I began the lesson by showing photos of Monet's many ponds with cool colors.

We reviewed what cool colors were and then proceeded to paint our papers.
I gave each student a sheet of bubble wrap. I had purchased a huge box at a yard sale that were already cut in rectangles.
I provided each table with a small sponge and a paper plate with blue and purple tempera paint. Students then took a sponge and dabbed the paint onto the bubble wrap and pressed it onto their paper. They really got the hang of repeating the process until they had filled their 12" x 18" multi-media paper.

On the second day we viewed various photos of Koi fish and I taught them how to simplify the fish into a tear drop shape and then add the tail and fins. We talked about how the eyes are on the side of a fish.
After they drew the fish, students traced them with a black marker and painted them with liquid watercolors.

On the third day we drew lily pads on green construction paper, cut them out and glued a tissue paper flower in the middle. 

We then cut out our fish and glued everything to our water. 

I think the next time I teach this I will add white paint along side the blue and purple paint to lighten the water up.

Kindergarten Paul klee cats with warm and cool colors

Kindergarten Paul Klee Cats

I found this great idea from http://jamestownelementaryartblog.blogspot.com/2015/10/kindergarten-paul-klee-cats.html
Please check out the original idea.
I first introduced the lesson by discussing warm and cool colors. We created a Venn Diagram on the board and I had students take turns sorting warm and cool colored  pieces of art.

I then read the book "The Cat and the Bird" by Geraldine Elshner.

 This took about 40 minutes.
I then instructed them on how to draw a cat in the style of Paul Klee.
On day two (my classes are 50 minutes each), we drew a line with a cool colored marker (students could pick any kind of line). Students traced their cats with a black fine tip  marker.
My kindergartners were encouraged to use the side of a crayon and color the background with a cool color.

Students could only use cool colors to color the collar and warm colors for the cat. 

I was surprised with the results. It helps to do this in the Fall or Winter! My kindergartners can do so much more by then!