A Bit Prickly…

Kindergarten learned about texture while creating these beautiful, bright, and colorful cacti. I found this lesson at Jamestown Elementary who created them with her 5th graders but I thought my Kinders would really appreciate this project as well. They did a great job, really.

We started with a directed drawing of the pot and the cacti and then reviewed patterns and filled in our pots with different designs. We colored the actual cactus with regular crayons and then used payons (watercolor crayons) to color the background. The last day was spent painting over the background with water.

Check ’em out!

          

Here I am checking out the cactus garden room at the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC this weekend! I thought of my Kinders as soon as I saw them. 

  

Here’s some more colorful cacti! I love them all!

  

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!

  

There’s no place like home…

Just a few pics of the NOrth Carolina projects we are working on! Love them all!

Winter and Holiday Bulletin Boards

A few bulletin boards I’ve been working on…

This one still has a couple of spots waiting to be filled! 🙂

Here some more reindeer with their applications attached. Love these.

Fun with Dali

My second graders love learning about Salvador Dali and looking at pictures of him and his artwork. He’s so crazy and cooky, it’s right up their alley. We also learn about blending and intermediate colors, and analogous color schemes with this crayon resist project.

Fifth Grade Fish

Check out some of the awesome koi fish by my fifth graders! We are looking at Asian art in all grades right now. After discussing some of the stories about koi fish and looking at lots of pictures of real and drawn koi, they started sketching their own. Next week, we will paint them with watercolor. I’m super impressed with how well they are doing so far.

Piles and Piles and Piles

Of ORNAMENTS!

I found this picture on Pinterest a couple of years ago and I pinned it with intentions of trying it with my 5th graders.

I didn’t attempt it until this year.  Mrs. Crisco over at Color It Like You Mean It! also made these and they are so pretty.  The kids are loving it and they are doing a fantastic job.  Can’t wait to see them all displayed!

 

 

Thanksgiving Bulletin Board

I love this quote about gratitude and think it is a great reminder for the holiday seasons of Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’m really hoping to focus this year on giving and having more experiences rather than material gifts. My child does not need every toy she sees or wants and the same goes for me (shoes and home decor are my weaknesses.) Let’s be grateful for what we have and spend more time and money on living.
Oh and aren’t those pumpkins and cornucopia miniatures beautiful? 🙂

Watercolor Pumpkins

I saw these beautiful pumpkins at Angela Anderson’s blog and decided to recreate them with my fourth graders. They started by sketching the pumpkins with pencils and then tracing with sharpie. I gave them the option of drawing one large pumpkin or several overlapping pumpkins. Most of them chose to do just one big one. Then we filled them with zentangles but I reminded them before we started that step that we would be painting these. One of our goals is to show the highlights and shadows with the watercolor so they didn’t need to do super detailed tangles, just loose, open designs. The next step was to add the background. I just had them color green and blue – nothing detailed – so that the pumpkin would really pop. Next week we will paint them and I’ll update with pictures!

Watermelon Self-Portraits

First graders started these cute self portraits last week and I think they will end up taking three weeks total. The first week, we drew in pencil and then traced in sharpie. This week, we used the Crayola multicultural crayons to color our skin as well as our eyes and hair. Some of the kids finished that in Ike to start painting their watermelons. Next week we will finish the watermelon and the background. I think they are turning out so well!