4th grade radial symmetry snowflake art lesson

 4th Grade Snowflake paintings

This lesson comes from Leah Newton. Just click on the link to see the original idea. 

We reviewed the term radial symmetry and discussed how snowflakes were created. Youtube has some great kid videos on how they are created. 

I gave the 4th graders choices of colors. They glued an 8" x 8" , a 10" x 10" and a 12" x 12" together. On the 8" x 8" they folded it into fours and then drew a snowflake design. Using tempera paint they painted the snowflake with their choice of white, purple or blue (they could mix these as well). Students could also use a Q-tip to paint dots around their design as well. 

If you want to see the video of me teaching it click on the link here 

https://youtu.be/qWKOOtWfxAQ

This student decided to outline her snowflake with a black marker. 

They had so much fun creating these! 

Kindergarten Jasper Johns stencil art

Kindergarten Jasper Johns stencil art 

Thanks to 2 Soul Sisters for this idea. I just changed it a bit to fit the needs of my kindergartners.  My students love the art of Jasper Johns. We discussed his paintings and how he may have created them and then set to work. 

This is our inspiration painting

"Alphabet" ( the Art Institute of Chicago). 

We sponged painted a primary or secondary color on our 9" x 12" multi media papers. 

  Using florescent tempera paint (washable) students chose a stencil, gently placed it on top and blotted paint in the letters. They loved the results and using the bright colors. This was so easy and they had so much fun!

ocean collage kindergarten art lesson

kindergarten ocean collage

I found this idea in The Great Big Art Activity Book. This was an end of the year lesson for my kindergarteners. Their cutting skills were much better as well as their drawing skills. This took three 50 minute class periods.

On day one we painted the ocean and the sand and took paint combs through the paint to create textures.

This took about thirty minutes so at the end of class I read Way Down Deep in the Deep Blue Sea by Jan Peck and illustrated by Valeria Petrone. It's a great predictable text that children can read along with you.

On day two we painted a multi media paper with four colors and used paint combs to create the textures.

We added white to the brown to use for sea shells. 

On day three we drew our ocean animals and plants on the back of our painted papers to create the collages. Lastly we traced the edges with a black oil pastel. 

The students enjoyed creating sharks and various creatures! 

Jackson Pollock marble painting kindergarten

Marble painting

This is the third project in our Jackson Pollock study. I again showed the students the books I  have on him in our classroom art library and some of his abstract paintings. 

I demonstrated how to drop a marble in the bowls of paint with a spoon and then dropped it on a piece of paper in a box lid. I used the box lids from the copier paper boxes. I have six tables so on each table I had one color and one marble. In the past I had two marbles in each bowl, but amazingly one would always disappear from the classes. Interesting, right? No one never knows what happens to them!

After students do the color at their table then they may carry their papers to the other tables to complete.

Great time to problem solve and take turns!

Great project for the beginning of the year. 

Jackson Pollock painting kindergarten art lesson

Jackson Pollock painting for kindergarten

Here is an easy project that kids love! I showed a clip of Jackson Pollock  working in his studio on YouTube. I had already discussed abstract painting with these kiddos so  they were familiar with his work. I have a couple of books on Pollock and they are kept in my art library for the kids to look at when they are finished with their art projects. I reviewed the book "Action Jackson" by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan. 

We discussed a couple of paintings. You can find some great images of his work and one of him working on the Jackson Pollock website http://www.jackson-pollock.org/

I showed them a turkey baster like the one Pollock would have used in his paintings and explained to the children that we would be using eye droppers instead. 

I have some plastic trays that were used to store snack packs like oreos and cheez- its that I put the liquid watercolors in. Actually some of the paint was from my dried up old markers. I soaked them in water and made the paint.  I think the next time I  do this lesson I'm going to buy disposable cups with lids and set them in the trays. 

The kids loved this lesson! 

After discussion, paint making time and clean up, this lesson took 50 minutes.