Up Up and Away...

After seeing something similar on Pinterest, where else, I decided to have 3rd graders create these balloons. They did trace around a template I had made and then I let them choose a pattern for their balloon after looking a several different designs. They drew in pencil, painted line in black paint for the first class. Day 2 they used oil pastels to color in their designs, cut and glued onto black construction paper. The balloons were drawn on 12X18 and the large paper was 18X24. Original Balloon Idea Here

Oil Pastel Still Life-Grade 3

I started this lesson by talking about a still life and showing a few examples a still life from artist like: Van Gogh, HenriRousseou, and Rachel Ruysch. I would normally set up a still life but it's one less thing I need to manage on a cart (back in the classroom next year! woohoo!). I demonstrated several ways to draw a vase and also showed ways to draw different types of flower. The students were supposed to show balance with their flowers, add a light and dark tone to each color and color with the shape. The only coloring that could be straight was the table which is flat. We were trying to show dimension with the two colors (ex: light green and dark green for the stem). I was excited with the results! They look amazing hanging in the hall! The black construction paper worked well with the oil pastels too!

Tree Resist

First graders did these blending tree resists. We started by using rulers to create a border. We drew the horizon line, 3 triangles above the line and squares for tree trunks. We started with blue, violet & red-violet. I added a little salt at the end for some texture.

Clowns

I found this project on Art Projects for Kids blog...a great source with excellent guides! We talked about all the places we would see a clown, what makes a clown look like a clown and if there are any famous clowns they know of. One boy said Crusty the Clown, I guess he already watches The Simpsons. Kind of funny hearing all of the answers! We drew the clown together on black paper and made sure we used solid color with our oil pastels. I thought a little border at the top and bottom would look circus-like. I love the one with arms, very creative!