5th Grade Christmas ornament painting art lesson

 5th Grade Christmas ornament watercolor painting

I found this idea from the  Tiny Art Room blog.  She said she found it on Pinterest so I'm not sure who thought up this great lesson but here is how I taught it. 

I began the lesson by talking about still lifes and showing examples of Van Gogh's sunflowers. We discussed the difference between still lifes, portraits and landscapes.

Students were given three different circles to trace. They were to overlap them and then add shadows and a highlight. I did a quick lesson on shadows and lights for this part with the kiddos. 

If you want to see how I taught this here is the link. Just copy and paste it in your browser. 

https://youtu.be/UxcyyENu2S4 

          I would number each circle so students make sure they have one of each shape. 

 Students drew hangers and erased lines to make the ornaments appear they overlap. This took one 50 minute class period. 

The next step was to outline all the lines with a black crayon and color the highlights with a white crayon. My students complained that they needed the crayon to have a finer tip. They probably could have used a black fine tip marker but it wouldn't have had the same effect with the watercolors. 

They still turned out nice! The last step was to paint the ornaments with watercolors. If they dripped paint onto their background then they were encouraged to come up with how to mask it. Have a look! 

1st grade Frida Kahlo still life collage

1st grade Frida Kahlo Still  life Collage

I found a similar lesson like this from https://www.deepspacesparkle.com/mexican-unit-fruit-crate-art-project/

I changed it a bit to fit with my students introduction to Frida Kahlo.

On the first day we watched a couple short videos on Frida Kahlo. I found two  that are very short and school friendly. You can find them here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfbLR15Bh74

and here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVkq_Ikaa40

We examined her many still life paintings and then got to work. 

1st graders were to think of the  kind of fruit or vegetables they wanted to have in their still life paintings. They were provided with 4, 6" x 9" pieces of multi-media paper, tempera paint and various tools to create textures in their paintings. 

Students were to paint the entire papers with the colors they wanted and then create a texture in the paint using various supplies such as paint combs, bottle stoppers and kitchen scrubbers. 

This took one, fifty minute class period (and we were rushing). 

For the next class we discussed the shapes of various fruits and vegetables and how to draw to save paper.

I provided patterns for students to trace to make a basket and step by step directions on how to make the weaving pattern on the board.

Students could share their painted papers if they decided they wanted a different color of fruit or vegetable.

This actually took two, fifty  minute class periods. 

I love how they turned out!