Bubble letters

I promised 1st graders that they could free paint the last day of class (they unanimously agreed this was what they wanted to do!) The more I thought about this, however, the more I didn't want them to have at the supplies with abandon as this often leads to lots of paper in the trash... Instead I had them write their first initial on a large sheet of paper as a bubble letter using oil pastels. They added minimal designs inside their letters with a reminder that white oil pastels could be used also, as it would show up when they paint over it. Then they were allowed to paint their letters however they liked. This worked so much better and their was no waste at the end. Most kids love anything having to do with their names, so this was a perfect one day lesson!

Clowning around

This lesson was borrowed from deepspacesparkle, another wonderful art teacher blog. First graders learned a little about clowns and clowning around... (so did I!)
And then they all designed their own individual clowns. The following week, they painted them and the last week they cut them out and mounted them on construction paper. All loved this project and we had many giggles and laughs when they were all displayed side by side in the front of the room!

Birds on a wire

I found this cute lesson on artsonia and decided to try it as a last day for kinder art lesson. I think the lesson is pretty self explanatory, but I will say that you should caution students against adding too many birds (which are simply their thumbprints) because of course they will have to add the details to all of the birds they create! This was the most challenging part for the kinders, but they still turned out pretty cute!

Apples and Oranges

My other 5th grade class also painted apples, but to switch it up a little, I brought in apples and oranges to create a more complex still life. It was the first time painting a still life for many of the students and they really had a good time!






It took approximately 4 - 45 minute classes for the students to finish their still lifes, so you have to make sure you have a nice cold spot to store your fruit in the interim. Of course they were using their skills learned in the previous lesson about form and outerspace. But I found that this lesson really showed the students how important careful observation is when trying to depict an object realistically. We talked a lot about seeing what is really there, and not what you think is there. I had to remind students that they needed to keep looking at their still lifes and observe that an apple is not just red, but could have green, yellow, brown, and even purple in it.


They also observed that they couldn't see all of the fruit equally. They had to make sure that there was overlap. Many of then came up with creative solutions for their tables and backgrounds. This was a fun lesson and a real eye opener for many of the students that careful observation is the key to depicting what is actually there!

2nd grade weaving

If you want a nice, calm engaging end of the year project for 2nd (and probably 3rd, 4th or 5th) graders, look no further! I found some pieces of burlap in storage and decided to teach some basic sewing/weaving skills to the students. After discussing basic terminology such as loom, warp, weft, needle, eye of the needle and running stitch I demonstrated how to create a basic running stitch in a 6x9 inch piece of burlap. After the students got the hang of this, they were allowed to add beads, and/or sew their initials or other shapes into their weavings.



The final step of this project was adding a large craft stick to the top and bottom of the back of the weaving along with a hanger so their weaving can be hung from the wall.

Camouflage Animals

This was a great end of the year lesson with my kindergarteners. I got the lesson from a recent School Arts magazine. The focus of the lesson was on camouflage, what it is and how animals use it to protect or hide themselves. We spent a day discussing this while each table had some pictures to look at and later describe to the class. After wards they each got to choose whether they wanted a tiger or a leopard and they received a quarter sheet of animal print paper. After gluing this down to a sheet of construction paper, they finished the camouflage pattern with appropriate colored crayons.




I made tracers of 'big cat' body shapes which the children used the following class period to trace and cut out their cats. The next period they glued down their cats and began adding the 'habitat', which they made by ripping paper into grass and tree shapes.




The last class was spent putting on finishing touches such as more grass, eyes and teeth or extra stripes or spots on their animals.

I liked this lesson a lot because the students were able to see the great results possible by breaking a project down into smaller pieces. They learned about camouflage, the behaviours of 2 different animals as well as carefully observing the actual patterns on these two animals.
This lesson would also be appropriate for 1st grade.