Gearing up for Fall

This fall has definitely turned into much more of a wild ride than I expected. I have tons of projects going on with all my grade levels, prepping for my state conference in November, photographing, hanging works, updating my school webpage, and dealing with a new health problem that has led to allergy shots... Sheesh. Boredom isn't part of my vocabulary. :) 

I have a couple of new projects to share that turned out rather nicely with my 3rd and 4th grade students that are a perfect sign of the season.

My third grade students created Warm and Cool Color Pumpkin Drawings. We discussed the three warm colors (red, yellow, and orange) and the three cool colors (blue, green, and purple). Students drew a simplified pumpkin shape (a template can be used here), drew a grid with horizontal and vertical lines (we used straight edges), then traced with a black sharpie. Then students had to take their time and carefully color inside their pumpkins with warm colors (this part definitely requires a lot of thought). We pressed hard so that our crayon would be slick and shiny! Lastly, we did the same with the cool colors. One of our goals was to make the pumpkins look like a patchwork quilt -- same colors weren't side by side. I love how these turned out. This project could be done with lots of other shapes as well.

My fourth graders also created pumpkins recently, however ours involved creating a variety of values. This idea I came across on another art teacher's blog. We started drawing on light green 9 x 12" construction paper. Outlined the shape of a pumpkin with pencil. Students traced with brown oil pastel, colored in with yellow oil pastel, then slowly blended in orange then red. These are super! I am not a fan of oil pastel for the fact I inevitably have students to get it on their clothes, but this will be a repeat project. Also, progressing from green to yellow then orange was a rather fun way to connect to the natural growth of a pumpkin.

    

A fun story book to connect to this project would be: The Biggest Pumpkin Ever by Steven Kroll although this is more of a Prek -2nd level book.

This next week we will be wrapping up a few other things and getting 2 days off for fall break! Yay! Then I'm looking ahead to Gee's Bend, Symmetrical Insects, and perhaps some snakes!