Pumpkins for Sonic!

For the last 3 years, Sonic in my districts town provides pumpkins for each 1st grader in my building. They always deliver them 2 weeks before Halloween and ask that each first grader paints a pumpkin. The kids always love this because they learn in kindergarten that when they are first grade they get to paint a pumpkin for Sonic! Sonic picks their pumpkins up about a week before Halloween and creates a pumpkin patch in front of their store! It always looks so great! Students can then go pick up their pumpkins on Halloween from Sonic and take them home! It never fails each year we do this, mother nature decides to let it rain ( and usually it pours) and some years the rain has washed the kids designs off their pumpkins(we have used regular paint, tempera paint, oil pastels in the past and no such luck) So this year, we used paint pens that we rotated around the art tables to ensure all kids got to use all the colors provided and it worked like a charm!!!! It poured this year after Sonic came and got them but their designs stayed and they of course looked awesome!
So note to self, paint pens are the way to go!!!!

Check them out below! The kids had a ball painting with paint in a marker form. They thought it was so cool!

 

Love these personalities! Makes me smile!

Color wheel

A few weeks ago among the chaos of my world, my 7th and 8th graders created color wheels. I always like to have my middle school kids create color wheels just because it is such a good review! On this project, students used their hands to create their giant color wheels. They simply traced their hand and cut it out. They then used their hand print as a pattern in which they traced 12 times (once for each color on the color wheel.) They just loved this step =) After 12 hands were traced, students began painting primary colors first on 3 hands. Then they painted 3 hands secondary colors. These 6 colors were already provided for them. Once primary and secondary colors were painted we discussed tertiary colors ( red violet, red orange, yellow orange, etc.)  They had to use their primary and secondary colors to color mix the tertiary colors. This is always a challenge for some because they always feel the colors don't look any different. I always stress to add more primary color then secondary color and it normally works perfectly! Once all paint is complete and dry, the kids used scissors to cut out their hands, and arranged them onto big paper. One thing I stressed is to make sure their complementary colors were across from one another to make sure they had correct placement.
They turned out awesome!

 

After this project, I always do an edible colorwheel just to ensure the concepts of color mixing, and placement are understood. It is a fun post test! Plus, if they do the edible colorwheel correctly they get to eat their project which they love! Middle school kids are always hungry!=)

Working with texture!

This past week we have just finished up working with texture in 4th and 5th grade! We started off talking about fall and how the leaves change to from green to beautiful fall colors. We then discussed texture and how artist create texture on their art using various techniques and how texture is how something feels when you touch it. Things can be hard, soft, silky, rough, smooth, furry, etc. I also introduced them to the technique of crayon resist! We began by taking leaf patterns along with acorns and pinecones and began to trace then randomly on the paper. I told them that we wanted our leaves to look as if we put our paper on the ground and the leaves just landed on them. I told them that leaves never fall in a certain order, they just randomly fall to the ground and we wanted to achieve that on our paper. They did a great job with making sure they were going off the page and overlapping to make them more interesting!

We did all tracing in pencil first so if they need to erase they could!  Once all pencil lines were drawn, the next step was to trace on top of their lines with a crayon real heavy( this will help us when painting). I didn't tell them to use a certain color, they chose whatever they wanted!

The crayon just makes their leaves pop!

After they traced their leaves, the next step was to take texture plates ( I love these things and so do the kids) and begin filling in their background with different texture. They simply put the texture plate under their paper and used crayons to texture rub. The kids loved this step and it makes the background stand out! They could choose whatever color they wanted for this step. Some chose numerous colors for their backgrounds.

Once the textured background was complete, the last step was to begin painting their leaves and then their background! The crayon with the tempera cakes helps keep their paint from bleeding together. This technique is called crayon resist!

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of a finished piece because they were so excited to take them home, but believe me they turned out lovely!!!!

 

As the seasons change....

Like I have said in previous posts, we have been so busy creating fall art. We have painted real pumpkins to creating our own pumpkins along with creating a painting about the four seasons. This is a project in which I have taught before at a previous school, however, I added some new elements to it and I believe the kids loved it! Plus, we got to paint which is always an exciting time!

In this project, 2nd and 3rd graders drew beautiful trees using the basic Y system. I have them draw one big Y and then they add little y's to them to create a bigger tree. Next, we talked about how trees are not always skinny so we need to color on each side of our Y's to make our tree big and fat! Then, we talked about texture and drew some on our trunks of our trees. Since we were doing a painting about the seasons, students had to fold their paper two different ways to create 4 squares on their paper. They had to draw 4 trees, one for each season. Then they got to add elements to each section that went with the season! They loved this part and got very creative! Lastly, we painted them using tempera cakes ( my favorite things ever!!!!)  They turned out awesome!

Oh! we also used a white crayon on the winter section and their designs just showed up magically when they began painting this sections! The kids thought this was SO cool!!

This project took 2 weeks, so the first week we did fall and winter and the second week we created our spring and summer trees.

Kids art always makes me grin ear to ear!

This is still a work in process but we are getting there! The ones that are complete have turned out beautifully! 

 

These kids make me smile with their creativity and willing to take chances! True artists at work!!!!!

Where has the time gone...pumpkins with personalities

I just cant believe we are in the middle of 2nd quarter. Time has just flown by...I hope that I can get caught up and get back on track...

This week in art we are drawing Indians from a profile point of view, which I am so excited to post about them when they are finished. I'm telling you what, my kids are such a great bunch of artists! I just love them so much! Those will be coming soon! Keep checking back!

 Don't you just love these pumpkins below! these were done by kindergarten and first graders. I always love this time of year because we can do such fun projects about nature and of course, pumpkins! We are still working each week to improve our gluing and cutting skills. This project we talked about secondary colors and adding personality to our art! I definitely think they achieved that! We have worked on cutting circles and rectangles from ovals and circles, we are getting better each week!

 

oops, wrong direction...

This one I love too, this student decided to add arms and legs...why not!? haha

they were glue happy too but that's why we have a drying rack!

 

My favorite thing is to just put the art supplies out and let the kids go after it! I love seeing crayons, glue and scissors all over the table and let the creativity loose and they always do a great job!