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.

Pre-historic Art!

Boy, oh, boy, did the 2nd graders have fun with this lesson. You know you have a keeper when someone tells you that they wish they could do this lesson for the rest of the year...
We spent a whole period viewing images from and talking about the earliest artists, our pre-historic ancestors. We talked about sculptures, megaliths and finally cave paintings, focusing on the Lascaux Cave in France amoung others. 2nd graders learned that pre-historic people existed before the invention of a written language and created some amazing and beautiful artwork.





I handed out a reference sheet with some simple line drawings influenced by images found in different cave art. Students were also given large sheets of brown craft paper. I encouraged them to crumple their paper so they could draw on a rough surface.




Using chalk pastel, students drew
a large animal. I explained that pastels blend nicely and had them use at least three colors in their animal. They also drew symbols that were found in different caves. The last and most exciting part for the students was when I sprayed their hands with red paint to simulate the cave of the hands in Santa Cruz, Argentina.



This was a super fun lesson for everyone that uses many skills, teaches history and opens the door for interesting, educational conversation.

Celebrating Earth Day

Let there be peace on Earth.. and let us all recognize the importance of Earth day every day... On this day, Earth day, my 1st graders and I talked about the origins of Earth day, and all of the things on our beautiful planet that need protection. We talked about what people can do to help keep our planet clean and protect all the creatures that live here. Then we created these pictures (I was inspired by a posting on artsonia) to celebrate our earth and serve as a reminder that the future of our planet is in our hands.
















First, trace a large circle on a square piece of black paper. Then trace your hand 4 time on the sides of the paper. Draw in some continent shapes (also a good time to discuss what a continent is, because 2nd graders don't really know) My first class used oil pastels, which gave nice results, but then my second class got out their crayola twistables and I have to say, these worked even better and didn't get all over the kids hands. Regardless, the results are beautiful.



Happy Earth Day!

Alien Names

If you have a class that you need a 'filler' activity, or have some students who finish a project early, this lesson works well. Particularly for second graders who are just learning to write in cursive...





















To create these name aliens, first fold a piece of paper in half length wise (we call this the hot dog fold). Write your name in cursive, using oil pastel, along the folded edge. Make sure the bottoms of your letters touch the fold. After writing your name, fold the paper in half so your name is now on the inside of the paper. Using the back of a spoon or the handle of a pair of scissors (something hard and smooth) rub the paper to transfer your name to the other side of the fold. When you open the paper, you will see a light mirror image of your name. Go over this with the oil pastel to darken the lines. When you turn your paper 90 degrees, the image looks like a strange alien!


Now students can fill in and add details to their alien using markers or crayons. 2nd graders have no problem letting their imaginations run wild, and come up with some really amazing results!

Fall Leaf Frottages

Many art rooms have some type of texture plates that students can make rubbings from. There are all kinds of possibilities and here are 3 different ways to use them. I did these lessons in the fall, when leaves are top of the list. It is also a good ice breaker for getting back into school.

The top leaves were done by my 1st graders. They traced leaf shapes from leaf tracers, then used the rubbing plates to create texture and color. After cutting out the leaves they glued them onto some gold paper, cut this out leaving a border. They repeated this step choosing a color paper of their choice. Finally they punched holes all the way around and laced yarn around their leaves. The final results are quite nice.


These leaves were done by my 2nd graders. I did a guided drawing of how to draw a leaf. After drawing the leaf, the students divided the backgrounds and added lines inside their leaves. Their job was then to use different colors in the different sections, using warm colors in the leaves and cool colors in the background.






































This last project was done with my 3rd graders. They traced leaves on a large piece of paper while over lapping some of the leaves and making sure that some of the leaves went off the side of the paper. We talked about composition. Then the students colored the leaves in using the texture plates. In all of the lessons we talked about how this technique is called frottage.

Tissue paper flowers

I have seen tons of lessons that use tissue paper so I decided to have a go at it with my 2nd graders. After all, Eric Carle and all of his beautiful art work is hard to argue with. To be honest, this lesson was a learning experience for me as much as it was for my 2nd graders. Initially, I instructed them to simply begin tearing out shapes from tissue paper in the general shape of a flower and 'glue' the shapes down with liquid starch. This proved to be kind of confusing to many of my students, however. They had difficulty visualizing the shapes needed and many of them wound up pasting down squares of tissue in no particular shape.





I didn't want to give up, so the following week I drew some basic flowers up on the black board and told the students that they should draw their flowers first, making sure they fill their page. It was a whole new lesson! The students added the tissue paper like pros and came up with some beautiful flowers!




After the flowers dried, the students cut them out. They chose a color of construction paper and I gave them oil pastels to create patterns and decorations on their paper. They glued their flowers on the paper with elmers and Ta Da! Bright, beautiful, colorful flowers!

City Line Silhouette

1st graders learned what a silhouette is while they looked at pictures of afternoon sunsets. After painting a watercolor wash on 12 x 18 paper, they cut out rectangles from black construction paper and glued them down. Then they learned how to make symmetrical shapes by folding smaller rectangles in half and cutting the sides. I encouraged them to create many different shapes for their roofs as sky scrapers are different all over the world. Lastly they added windows in their buildings to finish them off.

Value Butterflies

2nd Graders learned all about the element of art VALUE. I made up a poster that had value vocabulary: Tint, Shade, Tone, Hue, Value scale. We also looked at different art prints and discussed how artists use value to create contrast and volume in their artwork. They then created these great butterflies using the principles of symmetry and painting in the different shapes with different values of one hue.