It’s been several years since I did my NC Lighthouse lesson with students. My third graders learn all about North Carolina and I have missed doing this lesson with them! I decided to mix it up a little and include a Van Gogh/Starry Night thread along with the space/color elements. Looking forward to seeing the results from this change!
We might add some sailboats to the water, depending on the time we have available. ⛵
All of my classes are currently making art that deals with North Carolina agriculture. Lots of people in our state keep bees and this lesson is a great way to tie art, science, social studies, and real life all into one beautiful project.
We start with a discussion on NC Ag and bees. Then we watch this great video for kids about bees and why they are so very important: bee video. Then we finish with a demonstration of printmaking with bubble wrap and the linocut of a bee.
On the second day of the project, we add a little color to the bees and then cut them out and glue them onto the honeycomb.
Then we add some bright, colorful flowers around the edge to entice our bees to stay and hang out for awhile. 🙂
Done!
A quick little artist statement about how they created the piece or why bees are so important is a great way to add a writing aspect to this project!
My fifth graders started on their NC art project this week. We are creating in honor of the annual Statesville Hot Air Balloon Festival. We looked at tons of pictures of hot air balloons, paintings of hot air balloons, and even a video of a mass launch at the Statesville festival.
I wanted to give them more choice in their artwork and so I left up lots of the pictures we looked at and they are using those and their own ideas to create their own individual pictures.
Here’s a few from the first day of sketching…
Day one of choosing their own materials. They chose from crayons, markers, color pencils, color sticks, oil pastels, and paint.
Just a few pics of the NOrth Carolina projects we are working on! Love them all!
This is a new spin on an old project. We discussed NC lighthouses and how awesome it is to visit one. We also watched a short little YouTube video on moving Cape Hatteras which they thought was really neat.
Check out some in progress pics and I will post finished pictures ASAP!
WOW! I am so impressed with these paintings! They all did their own thing with painting and I just love how they are turning out. Beautiful!
First graders have been working on a painting of our state bird, the cardinal. We discussed how all the states in America have different objects and symbols that represent them. Then we talked about the cardinal and we also talked about how male birds look different from females.
We started our paintings by sketching in pencil, talking about each part of our bird. Then we traced in sharpie. The next class we painted everything but the snow. We will do that last and I’m going to try to make some sparkly white paint so it looks like fresh sparkly snow. I’ll post more pics when they are complete!
These beautiful landscapes were inspired by the lesson over at Apex Elementary Art. We switched it up a little to incorporate all three regions of North Carolina – the mountains, Piedmont, and the coastal plains. NC history is the focal point in 4th grade social studies so this is one of those perfectly aligned cross-curricular projects.
We sketched everything out with pencil first and then traced with a black crayon. Next week we will start painting with those nice translucent tempera paints.
I can’t wait to see their final products. I’ll update again when we are finished!
Update! We started painting this week and they are looking fabulous! Man, where did those awesome painting skills come from. (They came from me 😉 ) can’t wait to see the finished products!
I want to share every single one of these! They all look great. I am so proud of how well they are painting and experimenting a little with color and design.
UPDATE!
These gorgeous paintings are finished and hanging in the foyer of the school. They really pop against that brick wall!
Fourth graders started these awesome lighthouse pictures today. We looked at some artists from North Carolina that paint seascapes and lighthouses and then looked at some of the famous lighthouses along the Outer Banks.
We started by drawing a few levels of waves and then they had to choose a lighthouse to draw. Then we added zentangle designs to the waves. Next week we will paint the sky and water. Debating on adding a ship. Last year we didn’t do the lighthouse but did 2 ships. I’ll probably let the kids decide.
I thought these two were already looking pretty awesome!
tinyartroom 