1st grade art lesson Murakami flowers

 1st Grade Art Lesson Murakami Flowers

                                                             My demonstration video. 

Here is a great lesson to teach children in the spring. Takashi Murakami is a contemporary Japanese artist who is known for his sculptures and paintings as well as commercial media.  Children love his art as many of them look cartoonish. 

This lesson is based on his Flowers with Smiley Faces. 

Students started their flowers by making a circle in the  middle (they could trace the lid of their glue sticks if they wanted) of a 12" x 9" piece of drawing paper. The next step was to draw 12 lines around the circle making sure to space them evenly. The last step was to draw arches to connect the lines. 

Students colored their flowers with neon sharpies (they love these!) and traced the lines with a black marker. 

The last steps were to cut them out, assemble them on construction paper, glue and draw stems coming out of the circles. 

Love!!!

Yayoi Kusama kindergarten mushrooms art lesson

 Yayoi Kusama kindergarten mushrooms art lesson

I'm still teaching on a cart and still racking my brain to come up with ideas that aren't messy and don't require a sink! 

This is one I came up with while I was reviewing the beautiful art of Yayoi Kusama. My kindergarteners absolutely loved her polka dot inspired art! You can watch my demonstration video below.

Students used paint daubers to press dots all over their choice of 12" x 9" colored construction paper.

They dry really fast! 

I did a step by step tutorial on how to draw the mushroom by having the students fold a 9" x 12" multi media paper into fours to create a nice grid. 

 They did such a great job with their drawings! 

Students used neon oil pastels to color their mushrooms and outlined them with a black oil pastel. 

The last step was to cut them out and glue to the middle of their dotted paper. 

I'm so proud of the hard work they put into these! 

 

The Great Wave 1st grade art lesson

 The Great Wave 1st grade art lesson 

This idea came from the blog The Lost Sock. She did it with her fourth grade class so I needed to change it to fit the needs of my first graders. I'm teaching on a cart because of COVID so I'm scanning the internet daily for messy free art projects! You can watch my demonstration video below.

Art with Mati and Dada has a seven minute video on YouTube on Hokusai that is age appropriate. It's a great introduction to his "The Great Wave". I think it is so important to introduce students to famous paintings so when they are out and about in the community they recognized these iconic art pieces. Currently, Target has this print in their poster section! 

I provided students with 12" x 9" pieces of drawing paper and did a step by step tutorial on how to draw the wave. Students could add clouds or a sun to the sky. 

They traced their art with a black marker and used crayons to color. They were so proud of their work! 

1st grade art Japanese Cherry Blossoms

Japanese Cherry Blossoms

I found this idea from http://mrosartroom.blogspot.com/2013/03/2nd-grade-ming-vases-with-cherry.html?m=1

I changed it a bit to fit the needs of my 1st graders. 

I showed the students many examples of vases from Japan and we discussed the patterns and designs. I also added a couple of Rookwood pottery vases  to show them the pottery around our community. Rookwood pottery is made in Cincinnati which is close to our small community of Monroe.  

We first made our vases out of 12" x 9" white multi media paper. Students folded their papers in half and I taught them various ways to make half of a vase. We discussed symmetry in art and how this was a neat way to make our vases the same on both sides. 

Students used blue tempera paint and painted designs on their vases (remind them to put their names on the back first!). 

 This was day one of the lesson (30 minutes). 

On day two students glued their vases to the bottom of a 12" x 18" piece of construction paper. They painted free hand black branches and added white flower petals. I taught them how to fan their brush out to made the petals (they loved this part and was amazed at the results). The last part was to add a little pink dot in the middle of their flowers. 

Japanese Fish Kites 1st grade art

Japanese Fish Kites

On May 5th the people of Japan celebrate Children's Day. On this day families raise a carp shaped flag. There is a legend about a carp that swims upstream and becomes a dragon. As the wind blows the flag it looks like it is swimming. 

I purchased packs of kites from an art supply company. They come in packs of 24 and are very reasonably priced. I think they average about nine dollars a pack.

Each child wrote their name and teacher code along their mouth with a pencil, making sure to write dark.

They were then instructed to color the kites with bright colors and patterns.  We didn't worry about getting all the white spaces because once you spray them with water the colors bleed together. 

Don't forget to have the children cover their tables with newspapers. 

Once dried, we glued a piece of cardboard to the mouth (it comes in the kit) and added a string. 

The 1st graders had so much fun with this project. 

gyotaku fish Prints 1st grade

Gyotaku Fish Prints 

I introduced this lesson by showing examples of Gyotaku fish prints I had found on-line followed by  a video I found on You Tube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_mG-Ka4mv8&index=2&list=PL_b6jD1gHL_azBufeLGnpTteMKhJZsjpk

This video is only three or four minutes long and it is age appropriate. 

Students then prepared their background paper by placing tissue paper squares on a 12" x 18" multi media paper and brushing water over them.  The children absolutely loved this process. Their hands turned colors and they were excited to see the colors bleed together. 

Another method students could use is painting the paper with liquid watercolors and then placing plastic wrap on top. You have to do this quickly before the paint dries to get the watery effect. 

This took one, 50 minute class period. 

The next class period the students printed their fish. You can find Gyotaku Fish printing replicas from Dick Blick. You can use black paint but I used ink and foam brayers. I like ink instead of paint because the foam brayers soak up the ink and it dries fast. Ink goes a long way. I used one, 12 ounce bottle for approximately 100 prints. 

After the students printed their fish, I trimmed the papers on the paper cutter and helped them glue it to a piece of construction paper.  Lastly they wrote their Japanese name beside their fish. I found a website where you can enter names and it will give you the pronunciation and the Japanese characters. It is called Japanese Translator. You can find it here http://japanesetranslator.co.uk/

 This background was the result of placing plastic wrap on the liquid watercolors. 

This is one of the kids favorite lessons.