Primary Color Mixing

We did this lesson with tempera cakes because the liquid watercolor was running! I saw this on a youtube video (I forgot to write down the link but I'll post it soon) and simplified it for the kids. They used two primary colors to decorate precut circles. Next we poked holes in the center with pencils and students were able to spin them to 'mix' the colors. On my display I used push pins so people could spin the student work! Great color theory lesson! 

Warm and Cool Leaves

Students studied a simplified version of warm and cool colors: red, orange, yellow and pink for warm, and green, blue, purple, and magenta for cool colors. Students looked at leaves and copied them onto their papers. They used either a set of warm or cool crayon colors to fill in their leaves in between the veins. The following week students used the opposite set of colors to paint the background. All paint was liquid water color by Sax.

5th Grade Tints

Students learned to mix tints of blues and violets. First, students painted a circle for the moon. Next, students used combinations of white, blue, and violet to create the sky. Students then switched to a smaller brush to paint the trees with black. All paint was liquid tempera.

4th grade lighthouse prints

Fourth grade students study North Carolina architecture, so we looked at our famous lighthouses. Students drew their lighthouse onto a Styrofoam plate with a pencil and stamped with ink and a brayer. The background is a sponge technique, a shell stamped with black ink, and seashells glued on!

Styrofoam plate:

first grade rockets

We studied the planets and chose different size circle tracers to make each planet. The students used pictures of the real planets as a reference and colored with oil pastel. The next week, we added the black paint background. The following class we looked at a youtube video of a rocket launch. We drew  our rockets onto small white pieces of paper, colored with crayon, cut and pasted them to our art. Finally, we dipped sticks into white paint to create stars! (my example was from a few years ago, we did the same basic steps but painted metallic paint over the plants to make them shiny. I just don't have any more metallic paint this year so we skipped it)

First grade work:

Andy Warhol Hands

So much fun! The first session we discussed Andy Warhol and viewed his work. Next we took a  12" square paper and folded it into quarters. We opened it up and traced our hands with pencil, then with neon crayons. I encouraged the students to vary the neon colors in each box.  The next session we discussed the black shading that was in Warhol's pictures. Students used a black crayon for the shading and outlined each hand in white oil pastel to keep the watercolor inside the lines. Then students painted each hand a different color. Next week we will paint the background and we will be finished!

Third grade works in progress:

First grade water lilies

Students learned about Claude Monet and his famous water lilly series. We did a wash of colorful watercolor in the background and then cut out lily pads. Students drew some cool stuff on their lily pads, frogs, flies, flowers, etc. Someone drew some ghosts because the lily pads looked like Pac Man! The following week we double dipped brushes in white and red tempera paint to create the lilies, and blue and white to create waves in the water!

First grade art:

(I was informed that these smushed up papers are frogs. So cute!)

fourth graders mix tints

I cant remember the website I saw this on, but the students loved it! After painting the snow, moon, and trees, we discussed the difference between shading and cast shadows. Then the students practiced mixing shades of grey to create the highlights on the trees and the cast shadows. I wished I could have found more room for individuality in this project, they mostly looked the same. Anyway, the students enjoyed it.

Fourth grade paintings

Radial designs painted

Students painted with watercolor. So pretty!

5th grade Radial Designs

Students started in the center of a square paper and made the same design in the shape of a plus sign. They then built outward adding detail and being careful to rotate the paper as they went to keep the symmetry. Next week students will use plastic wrap and water color to color the background.

Fifth grade work in progress:

1st grade snake puppets

First graders looked at the patterns on photos of different species of snakes.  We then drew our spiral and used broken lines, zig zags, wavy lines, curly lines, thick and thin lines to add line pattern. Students painted their snakes with watercolor.

The following week, students cut out their spirals and glued on popsicle sticks to hold their puppets. They colored the stick near the mouth red to look like a long tongue.

First grade work:

kindergarten castles

This lesson came from www.deepspacesparkle.com

We started with a directed line drawing of a castle. Students the painted with liquid watercolor. It was the first time the kindergarteners have used all of the watercolor paints at once, so I emphasized rinsing brushes after finishing each color.

Kindergarten work.