Bee Keeping Beauties

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! 

Springtime Rabbityness!

Kinders and first graders are both reading Rabbityness and then creating different types of art with it.  (We are actually having it read to us!)
Kinders created backgrounds using markers and then dripping water on it to make it look like watercolor. Next week they will be printmaking with some linocuts I made. Fingers crossed they will enjoy it!

First graders are drawing their rabbits and coloring with construction paper crayons. These have so much personality!

Day 1 of printing… Not sure I’ll make it through the week with my sanity in tact. It would help immensely if I had my own room that all grades could use but that is not the case. But, I LOVE these prints. Love them.

Finishing the first grade rabbits this week!

  

Sun Stone Prints

Fifth graders are also making the Aztec sun stones but they are using printmaking as their medium.

We started by painting the background with orange, yellow, and gold paint. They created foam printing plates and were totally impressed with the process. They only made the face for their prints and then used other stamps I’ve created to add to them. They are turning out beautifully!

¡Cinco de Mayo!

I’m trying all new projects in honor of the upcoming celebration of Cinco de Mayo. It involves lots of painted paper, printmaking, and collage. Every grade has a project they are going to be working on in the coming weeks so I’ll be sharing as we go. Check out some of our prep work.  Lots of these ideas are coming from the awesome art blog, Painted Paper.  She did an entire art show on art from Mexico.  Beautiful ideas!

You Can’t Get Too Much Love

As Dave Matthews reminds us, “you can’t get too much love” so even though some of our Valentines projects were postponed by snow days, we finished them up last week and they were definitely a bright spot in my camera roll. 🙂

These are our collaborative kinder hearts. We painted and added the mosaic pieces the first week. Then I cut all of their hearts into four parts. I gave them all one piece of their heart and three other pieces by different classmates. They put them together to make a new heart and then added wings or an arrow.

We also finished our Valentine printmaking bees. They turned out bright and buzzy!

And last but not least, here are a couple of the third grade Pop Art hearts we made with printmaking and oil pastels.

North Carolina Honey Bees

Some of my classes are participating in the NC Farm to School calendar contest. Second graders are learning about printmaking with this project and we are making honeycombs and bees. We started off with making the honeycomb with yellow paint, bubble wrap, and brown paper. Then we printed a big bee that I had made out of cardboard. We printed with black paint and next week we use oil pastels to go back and add some color. I think the oil pastels really make the bee pop and bring it to life with the extra colors.

We also did aValentine version!

Valentine Pop Art Printmaking

I am pretty excited about doing this lesson with the kids because they have already seen my example and were excited about it. When they are excited, I am excited! : )
I made the printing blocks ahead of time and they will just be getting to print with them. With limited supply, budget, and time, I decided it would be best to go ahead and do this step myself. We will be discussing the Pop Art movement and focusing on Jim Dine and Andy Warhol in particular. This is my example but I will be sure and add pictures of their finished products when complete!

Another bulletin board from my other school!

Bubble Wrap Printmaking!

I am SO excited about doing this project with my second graders tomorrow. I found this project on Fun Art 4 Kids’s blog and fell in love. I immediately went to work finding some different size bubble wrap and today I made my sample. I know the kids are going to LOVE it! So much fun!