Caught Up in Color!

Pretty excited about this project even though it’s been around for awhile. I’ve never attempted it with any grade and I’m not sure why. Probably just not enough hours in the day or classes in the week. But this year I’m giving it a shot with first grade. It’s a fun take on what can be a Halloween project (or not) and uses lines, color, and some 3D effects with the spider. 

I’m posting my step by step pics to use when I’m going through it with my students. I’ll add more with the spider later. We used black crayons to draw the webs and tempera cakes to paint. 

Here are a few finished webs with spiders! I love how colorful they are. The kids did a great job taking their time painting. 

Fall, Halloween, and El Dia de Los Muertos

Lots of fun projects happening the last couple of weeks! 

   
    
   
 Deep Space Sparkle always has amazing ideas. I adapted her 5th grade lesson for my first graders and they absolutely loved it!   

    
    
Kinders worked hard on their folk art kitties! Thanks to Art Projects for Kids for this great idea!    
    
    
   

Folk Art Friskies

I’m looking forward to starting these precious folk art style black cats with my kinders next week.  We are getting in lots of practice with painting, lines, shapes, and colors this first quarter.  I found this lesson on Art Projects for Kids – check out her original post here.  It goes well with the Halloween season but if you don’t do holiday art, you could always do another animal or do it at a different time of year.  I’ve posted my step by step pictures and I’ll post their works of art (which are sure to be way cuter and filled with lots of personality) when we are finished.

  
   
    
 

Some finished products…

Most students had a difficult time with the border. They grasped the idea of a pattern but put in a ton of lines to create their blocks so it took them forever to color. I did learn to tell them to use their thumb as a spacer when creating them. That helped a little. 

   
    
    
   

A Plethora of Pumpkins

What? I love alliteration. 

Check out some of our pumpkin art from various grade levels. 🙂 🎃

   
    
   

Paul Klee’s Pumpkin Patch

Second graders are learning about Paul Klee and his use of lines, shapes, and colors. They answered the prompt, “if Paul Klee painted a jack-o-lantern, what would it look like?” We also discussed value before painting so we would have multiple oranges instead of just one.

*update!*
These are finished and they look so good all together in “Paul’s Pumpkin Patch!”

Cursive Calaveras

My third graders are learning to write cursive and I thought this project would be absolutely perfect to go along with their new writing skills. I found this project on The Kessler School’s Artsonia page. This is my example, step by step and I’ll be sharing my students’ as they finish!

*UPDATE*
We are finishing up our Cursive Calaveras and they look phenomenal! We decided to add the colorful border and the monarch butterflies in honor of Dia de Los Muertos.

Let’s be FRANK: Picasso Rocks!

Saw this project on Art Projects for Kids and thought it would be a festive way to discuss Picasso with my second graders. They have totally loved looking at his crazy Cubist paintings and then making their own version of Cubist Frankenstein.
We drew their Frankie with sharpie and then colored it all in, including some spooky things in the background. The original plan was to look trough magazines for the eyes but it was near impossible to find eyes big enough to go on the monsters. I ended up doing a google search for “eye” and just printing the results. It worked out well.
Check out some of our finished pieces!

Haunted Halloween Houses

Third graders will be starting these haunted house collages next week. I’m looking forward to seeing how they personalize their own!

SCARY!

This is a picture of a HUGE black widow I found under a rock at my house.  I posted so my first graders could see since we are making the Alphabet Spiders! 🙂

Alphabet Webs

It will soon be that spooky, fun holiday that shall not be named! To get into the spirit, First Graders will be making Alphabet Spiderwebs!
We start with writing the alphabet all over a black piece of paper with a white construction paper crayon. Then we connect all the letters to each other to resemble a web. Then we use some painted paper to make our spider. I just used some crayons and glitter to add eyes and a mouth.
I added the frame as an after thought but it would probably be better to do that first so you don’t cover up any letters.