Blind Flowers

Another project we worked on in class was a blind flower drawing.  We were required to draw three flowers on a piece of drawing paper without looking, using a white crayon.  We then had to wet the paper down using water and a clean paintbrush.  After that we used warm and cool water colors to paint over the white crayon.  When we did this, the flowers appeared very clearly! 

An extension activity could be having students use it in math class.  They could set up problems using a peach crayon where the writing would be visible, but the answer would be in white crayon.  Once painted over, they would see if their answer matches the mystery answer! 

Bunny Art

Our most recent project in class was a first grade project dealing with complimentary colors.  My group was assigned red and green.  Red is considered a warm color and green a cool color.  We took a piece of white drawing paper and drew thick and thin horizontal lines using red and then drew vertical lines using green.  After the paper dried, we traced out pre-cut patterns onto our "plaid paper" that would soon be glued together to form a bunny! 

An extension activity would be writing a story about their favorite animal.  Once the story is finished, they could use the "plaid paper" idea and make the animal they wrote about in their story.   

Safari

The assignment this week dealt with warm and cool colors.  We first chose an animal that we might find on an African safari; I chose an elephant.  Using a sky blue colored pencil, which is a cool color, I sketched the elephant out, not too light, but dark enough where you would be able to see it when you put on your "special glasses".  Using warm colors such as red, red-violet, yellow, and orange, I drew layers of shapes and lines over the elephant.  When finished, I was not able to see the elephant by looking at the paper.  However, when I put on the glasses, I could see the elephant perfectly.  The warm colors acted as a camouflage for the elephant!  

 An extension activity could be giving students a different theme to work with.   The theme could be "What I Did Over Spring Break".  Students would follow the same steps as the safari activity, just have a different picture camouflaged.  This would be a good activity to do when students first get back from break as a way to share what they did during their time off! 

Eric Carle Project

This week in class we discussed the work of Eric Carle.  One of my all times favorite books of his is The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  To create work similar to Carles, we first took big sheets of blank white paper, and swirled, mixed, and textured the paper with paint.  Then, we made a rough draft of what we wanted our storybook to look like.  Next, we cut shapes out of the colored paper to make our storybook scene.  My story was about a butterfly named Sandy who was trying to make her way to the beautiful enchanted forest.  This was a great project, and brought back many elementary memories of reading Eric Carle's books!

"Sandy was speechless when she finally made it to the beautiful enchanted forest!" 

An extension activity would be having students create an entire story book using Eric Carles technique.  As a teacher, you could assign a specific topic such as "A Moment That Changed My Life".  This would be a great way to learn interesting details about the students in your classroom.    
  

Inspired by: Van Gogh

This week in art methods we focused on Van Gogh's painting, Starry Night.  We did a kindergarten level project using finger paint, either following Van Gogh's Starry Night, or coming up with a similar painting creating movement in the sky, along with a background, middleground, and foreground.  We also did a third to fifth grade level project with tissue paper and sharpie marker or oil pastels.  It was the same concept to create movement in the background and then have a city scene in the front.

An extension activity off of this could be using an entire different medium to reenact Starry Night.  Students could use chalk, pastels, or colored pencils or something as different as magazine clippings.

Finger Paint 

Tissue Paper 

Elements & Principles

Color-paint samples

Organic shape-plant

Texture-shingles 

Geometric shape-sign

Contrast-sunset 

Footprint

Our first art project that we completed was tracing our foot/feet and using at least three elements of design, and decorating it with things that represent us.  On my foot I included my name, a purple bow representing the dance classes I took when I was younger, a Chinese symbol on felt that represented family, a flip-flop cut out of a magazine and blue tissue paper representing my love for the lake in the summer, a red barn representing where I grew up (out in the country on a farm), a volleyball sticker because I have been playing volleyball since third grade and am currently playing in college, a popsicle stick that represents a snowboard, and a globe that represents my love to travel.  Another activity that a teacher could do in their classroom to get to know their students would be true-true-false.  Each student gets a note card and writes two true facts about themselves, and one false fact in any order.  We then go around the room reading the three facts and the other students guess which is false.  This is a great activity to get to know students in the classroom and helps link a face/name to an interesting fact!