Funky Fall Trees

My second graders just finished some fun and funky fall trees!

 

Students first drew their tree with pencil onto 9 x 12" white paper. I showed them how to create a 'stick' tree at first that included roots, trunk, and swirling branches.

 

 

We painted the background with red, yellow, and orange liquid colors. We painted right over the tree then allowed these to dry. I suggested students paint in a horizontal motion and allow colors to mix. But everyone did their own thing.

 

The second week we reviewed our warm colors, then painted our trees with black tempera to create a silhouette. The key was to hold our brushes like a basketball player... TALL.

 

 

After we painted our art work skinny, students then went back a second time to thicken up their branches, trunk, and roots. We went right over or next to the first lines we painted.

 

 

I love the way they all turned out. We have had so many great comments on our works. Each one is so original!

 

We are now moving on to our Burger collages... one of my favorite projects of the year.  You can find that post here: Burger Collages

 

This project took 2 forty minute classes and used the following materials:

9 x 12" white construction/heavy weight paper

pencils and erasers

liquid watercolor - red, yellow, orange

black tempera

small paint brushes (size 6)

 

Warm and Cool Hands and some Balloons thrown in!

I found this amazing project idea on Pinterest. No clue where the origin is though. My fifth graders created Warm and Cool color Hands. This project took us about two forty-minute classes to complete.


We began by reviewing warm and cool colors (which they are experts on now!). Students first traced their hands with pencil onto a long sheet of paper allowing part of their arm to appear as well as leaving a small bit of space between the pointer finger and the thumb. This is actually old computer paper with that green stripe along the back. Perfect length for this project.


Students then chose a shape (not a circle) that they liked, many chose a heart because that was the example I put up. Then we traced our hands and shapes with a sharpie marker. (I've run out of black that works so really any dark color will do)

After students traced the hand and shape with sharpie, I told them to get their pencil out again. Now they began to create concentric circles that originated around the shape. These circles should overlap the hand. **Student need to space these appropriately otherwise close lines make coloring much harder later.

Then they began to color in the hands with cool colors only (blues, greens, and purples). Each time a line cut the hand a new color was to be selected. The fingers are definitely the hardest part since they are in multiple sections. I asked students to give each "circle" an assigned color for the section of the hand within it.

The second day of this project students finished their cool colors inside their hands. Then we reviewed warm colors (reds, yellows, and oranges). They were to first color their shape a warm color then continue to fill the circles with other warm colors. They could choose to make a pattern or keep it entirely random.

 

I've seen others attempt this with younger grades, but I wouldn't with my particular students. The fingers make this a particularly tricky project.   

Also, my challenging 3rd graders have been busy working on Asymmetrical Hot Air Balloons. This project also took two weeks. The first week we contrasted symmetry and asymmetry. We also look at visuals of Hot Air Balloons and the parts of the balloon we would need to draw.

We began with a 9 x 12" piece of paper, cds, pencils, brown and white crayons, and a permanent marker. Students first traced a cd twice with pencil so that one would be higher and the other lower.

Then they drew rectangles for the basket below. This could also be a template if you have one available. I happen to have several so I passed those out as an option as well. **Emphasize not to put the basket directly under the balloon otherwise there is no room for the ropes. We connected our balloons to the basket with rope lines.

Students then had to design their own patterns for each balloon so they were not the same, thus creating more asymmetry. Also, they could draw 1, 2, or 3 clouds. We traced everything with a permanent marker. We colored the baskets with brown crayon and clouds with white.

The second week students were allowed to paint their work with my handy dandy tempera cakes!  I especially like to do these in March when the wind picks up and it feels like the perfect time for a balloon ride!

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!