1st Grade: Mouse Paint Color Wheel

So I had seen a couple of other art teachers do a lesson on Mouse Paint and thought they were so cute. I have been wanting 1st grade to do more coloring mixing so I thought it would be a cute idea to create a Mouse Paint inspired color wheel.

First, we read the book. I also created a power point that went over Primary, Secondary, Cool, Warm, and Complementary colors.

Then, I showed them how to draw the mouse. As a guide with the size they folded a piece of paper into 8 parts.

They drew six mice and cut them out.

I went with the Deep Space Sparkle painting technique using a plate with the primary colors. The students paint their primary colors.

Mixing up some green. Just a little bit a blue is enough.

Paint the Secondary colors.

Glue the mice on the paper.

I had them finish by adding tails and painting the ears. You could even have a title at the top.

Enjoy!

Kindergarten: Paul Klee Inspired Portrait

Recently, I had kindergarten study Paul Klee and his painting “Senecio”. We talked about portraits and how there are all types of portraits. Some realistic, some that are abstract. I had the students look for basic shapes that form parts of the face.

You can see where I am using the Document camera to draw the face and I have Paul Klee’s painting right next to my drawing. That way the students can see how I am creating a portrait like the “Senecio”.

These are a couple of examples I showed them. The students loved them and thought they were so funny.

Bulletin Board: Have a Blast Exploring Art!

I so loved the rocket ship lesson that I saw on Deep Space Sparkle, Mini Matisse and a couple of other blogs, I just had to try it out myself.

I ended up coming up with a really great bulletin board design. The teachers and students have really been commenting on how much they like the display.

I was trying to get more of the rocket ships in the picture.

Art ROCKS!

So, this week we had teacher appreciation week. For one of the days, students had written notes telling their teacher why they appreciate them. I walked into my classroom with a pile of notes tied up with a lovely bow. I couldn’t resist showing you a couple that I found so sweet.

I love the little “h” with an arrow pointing to the sun.

Lindsey, I totally agree. Art definitely rocks!

Great Zoetrope Idea

 

I saw this really cute project on the Craft: blog about how to make a zoetrope out of coffee can. I think this would be a great project for 4th or 5th grade. I just need to come up with something other than a coffee can to use. I really loved the little animation that the artist made. Here is the full article. I’ll let you know if I use the lesson.

Watercolor Landscape: Drawing

I have to admit that this project takes several classes but I feel it is worth it. It took me a couple of years to master teaching this project. I hope this tutorial will be beneficial for all of you who are considering teaching your students landscape drawing.

Materials:

• Image of a landscape – I let them pick their own.
• 18” x 24” white paper
• Pencil
• Black Crayon
• Crayola Watercolors(used next post)
• Watercolor Brushes(used next post)

 

It was important that the students picked images that had a good use of space(foreground, mid-ground, and background) and color. Snow scenes are not the greatest.

I always have students start by drawing a horizon line. Even if they cannot completely see the line in the picture, it is a good guide for positions objects and it also continues to reinforce overlapping shapes.

Drawing foreground objects first will help them later when they need to overlap.

When drawing trees I always start with drawing the trunk and maybe some branches. Then I draw the foliage.

When the kids were working on tree and bush foliage I would draw examples of different trees using the document camera to project my drawings. I would go over pine trees, oak trees or whatever the kids needed me to show them. We would have a “tree drawing session”. I would sometimes point out that the Ed Emberely drawing books had some good examples of foliage.

Tree examples

The kids favorite Ed Emberley book. I think I love it just as much as they do.

A page from the “Make A World” book that shows you how to draw trees and bushes. So cute!

Another thing I tell the kids is no details until they get all the main shapes are drawn. The kids tend to spend WAY too much time on details, so I make them do it later in the drawing.

READY TO PAINT! Stay tuned, I will go over watercolor painting techniques in the next post.

New Year, New Blog, New Challenge

I love being an art teacher and I devote so much of myself to my students. One thing I struggle with is creating artwork outside of the classroom. I’m sure many of you understand this dilemma! I have found that having this blog has been a great motivation to share and work on new ideas. I decided to start a personal art blog and I am challenging myself to just create something new each month. I welcome all of you to follow me and even to take on an artistic challenge of your own! Click the picture below to go to my new blog, Chromo Life.

Happy new year bloggers!