Penguin in the Summer

This was an end of the year project that the students did in 1-2 days. Their job was to draw a penguin and add a background that shows the penguin on summer vacation...Got a few sunburned penguins and some eating ice cream or at the pool. :)

Chalk Pastel Warm/Cool Landscapes

4th Graders learned about warm and cool colors and how to use pastels when they made these landscapes. First we talked about what kinds of things you find in a landscape, such as hills, mountains, trees, and other things you find in nature. Next, I demonstrated how to draw the landscape. We did these on 9"x12" black construction paper and drew everything with regular glue. You don't even have to draw it with a pencil first. Just draw your landscape on the black paper with a regular glue bottle, making thick white lines. The three things that make up the landscape are:

1. Rolling Hills (Bottom)
2. Rounded mountains (Middle)
3. Concentric circles (Top)

The rolling hills are easy, just make wavy lines, starting at the bottom, and put them all the way across your paper. You can make as many as you want. Next is the rounded mountains. These are just curved lines. they should touch the wavy lines. I like to make them rounded because everything else is rounded or curved, and I think it looks better than pointy mountains. Finally the concentric circles will go in either corner. This will be the sun or moon, depending on what time of day you want it to be. I started with a small circle, and then drew about four more around it. Drawing all of this with glue will take one day. After the glue is on the black paper, you have to be really careful not to let it drip or bend your paper on the way to the drying rack. The glue will be completely dry by the time they have their next art class.

On the next two days, students will color their different parts of the landscape with chalk pastels. They will use both warm (red, orange, yellow) and cool (green, blue, purple) colors in an alternating pattern. For instance, if it is nighttime, the moon or circles will have to be colored cool colors. Then the mountains should be colored warm, and the hills should be cool. Nighttime is easy because you can leave the sky black.
The chalk pastels or soft pastels can get messy, so I always demo how to use them first. I keep them in plastic bags at their tables and at the end of class, I have them clean up with baby wipes or wet paper towels and hand sanitizer. After they are all done I spray them with Aqua Net (cheap hairspray works the best!) so that the pastels stick to the paper more easily. I always send home pastels in a manila paper folder or tape a manila paper cover page on top so that it doesn't get as messy.

I usually get great results with this project. Take a look...

One of the reasons I love doing the glue on black paper with pastels is because they turn out so bright!

4th Grade Aboriginal Art Animals

These cuties are part of an Australian Aboriginal art lesson I do every year. They always turn out great and the kids have so much fun with the painting. First we talk about the Australian Aboriginal Dot paintings- I give them a world map, we locate Australia, and then we talk about the different animals. I've printed out several different animal color pages for them to use as a guide. They pick which animal they want to draw, and take a copy of the color page to look at when they are drawing it. The color pages work well as a drawing guide because they are usually easy to draw and they are just simple black lines. Then I keep the copies and just use them each year. The students are given a small piece of brown construction paper (half of a 9x12) to draw the animal on, and we talk about how the real aboriginal paintings were made on tree bark.

Next the students begin painting the dots with tempera paint. The eraser on a new unsharpened pencil works the best for painting the dots. I have learned that letting them practice making the dots works a lot better in the long run. That way they don't go too fast and make a big blob. They start with a black or white outline of dots on all of the pencil lines. Then they fill in the animal, and finally the background. When they are switching paint colors, they just wipe the end of the pencil on a paper towel. It takes an average of three days to paint the whole thing, so I have been using clear paint cups with lids that come in a set, and I fill them up with all of the colors. Its much easier than getting the paint out on plates each time.

Overall I love seeing the results of this project and I enjoy the process as well. Check out these awesome ones below!

Hoot! Hoot! These are Cute!

All of my 3rd and 4th graders made these wonderful owls from recycled toilet paper rolls. I saw the idea on Pinterest. Here is a link:
http://media-cdn.pinterest.com/upload/273453008593884495_OmsYRXoJ.jpg

First we discussed the difference between shape and form, and 2-D and 3-D. Next, we folded the top part to make the head and ears, taped it, and painted the whole thing one color. Finally, we glued on wiggle eyes, a beak, and wings. Scrapbook paper or wall paper make great wings. Also I let them use crazy scissors when they cut out the wings. Since a lot of students ALWAYS use too much glue, this is a good practice for them to use small dots of glue for everything since they are using small pieces.

Two advantages to this project:
1. Even though these are 3-D, they take up very little space because they are small.
2. It only takes 2 days, and then the students can take it home!