Follow this step-by-step lesson plan to teach your students how
4th Grade- Enlarged Flower Drawings inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe! Students learned about the artist Georgia O’Keeffe, and viewed examples of her flower paintings. We talked about the scale (s…
HALLOWEEN ART LESSONS for 5th Grade and up I've put together 6 of my favorite Halloween Art Lessons for 5th Grade through 8th Grade
Engage your students AND improve their vocabulary with morphology word chains. Read more and grab freebies for this morphology activity!
Next week, after 4th finishes their Aurora Borealis pictures we've been working on, we'll start this rockin' watercolor project! This artwork is inspired by the art of Rebecca Chaperon and the fabulous art teacher Miss Lee. Here's how we'll be creating our own crystals! Materials: Sax 90 lb paper Crayola Artista II watercolors Big Kid's Choice brushes Metallic Sharpies Ticonderoga Pencils We'll be looking at minerals, crystals, and gems, for our inspiration. We'll be using rulers to draw out our shapes, (which is a challenge in itself), and Crayola watercolors to give our crystals some lively color. We'll be talking about the element of art, VALUE, and how important it is in our pictures. I'll show them real life examples in a book from the library and on my computer, and when they get started, I will hand out visuals for them to look at while they are working. I don't know about you, but I draw much better when I can look at what I'm doing! Here's some "how to draw" examples I created, and placed in a packet I made of clip art of gems and crystals printed from the internet. (They don't have to follow these exactly how I did them, but like I said earlier, it helps to have visuals!) Here are some videos I made, that show how to draw and paint these! I'll try and post more soon! How to draw a simple crystal How to draw a cluster of crystals How to draw a diamond Day 1: Look at examples of minerals, crystals, gems, and watch Mrs. Stacey demonstrate on how to start the project. (I draw out the crystals, just like I do in the "how to draw" papers above.) Day 2: Review, and discuss/demonstrate watercolor painting techniques. If they finish one, the can start smaller and different ones. I'd like for them to cut the finished product out and glue it to construction paper, and add little gems around it. Here's my examples to show the kids. I drew them with pencil, traced them with black, silver, or gold sharpie, and painted them using Crayola watercolors and a Royal Langnickel Big Kid's Choice paintbrush. Side note-Originally, I tried outlining with a white pastel (because gold and silver Sharpies are so expensive!) but I did not love that at all. I think I had the most fun, making this tourmaline inspired example! I had fun painting these, and I hope the kids will too! Check back soon for some awesome art! Mrs. Fambrough's class is off to a great start! Mrs. Stacey is so proud of y'all!! Here's some great ones from Dr. Fambrough's class! Look at these fabulous watercolor painters from Mrs. Schoor's class! Here's Mrs. Fambrough's class, hard at work, drawing out their crystals! Here are some finished ones from Mrs. McAllister's class! “Lauren Stacey is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.”
Fifth Grade students studied gesture drawings and the sculptures of George Segal. Students then created their own gesture sculptures showing...
4th Grade- Enlarged Flower Drawings inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe! Students learned about the artist Georgia O’Keeffe, and viewed examples of her flower paintings. We talked about the scale (s…
While I am a firm believer in students reading real books that they choose and doing this often, I also love to include reading games and reading centers in
Happy Fall! I don’t know about you, but for me, at this time in the year, the back to school rush of adrenaline has worn off. Students have settled into their classes, behaviors start to escalate and as an art teacher, you’re just plain worn out. But after classes are done for the day, you have to attend to all of the cleaning, organizing, school duties, meetings lesson planning & prepping for the next day. . Art teachers are really AMAZING. The amount of work you do on a daily basis is unreal a
This week 4th grade is starting their Robin Mead inspired landscapes! She's a contemporary artist from Georgia, and you can check out her work on her website here! I was also inspired by the awesome art teacher, Lauralee Chambers, from her beautiful student examples on Instagram! Here's Robin Mead's Instagram too :) She has a Youtube channel too! Here's how we created ours! Materials: Sax 90 lb paper pencils Sharpies Crayola artista II watercolor Big Kid's Choice Paintbrushes Robin Mead examples Day 1: Show examples of Robin Mead's work, and show examples of other 4th grade work from Lauralee Chamber's art room. Then I demonstrated how to add the water, ground, mountains, and sun. After I drew it out, I traced it with Sharpie, and let them get to work. When enough had drawn and traced, I demonstrated how to blend their watercolors in a way similar to Mead's work. They did a great job, and enjoyed creating their own landscapes! Here's some examples of Robin's work! It's so beautiful and colorful!! Here's a video, showing how to draw a Robin Mead inspired landscape! Here's some great student examples on day 1 of instruction! here's Mrs. Braswell's class, working hard on theirs! Here's Mrs. Torres' class, finishing up! Just beautiful!! DISCLOSURE: LINKS TO PRODUCTS ARE AFFILIATE LINKS, WHICH MEANS I GET A SMALL COMPENSATION FOR SALES. THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING OUR BLOG!
I have done this lesson many times, but this year the results are better than ever before. This year, we had more time to do this project, and therefore their drawings had more detail. This lesson focuses on the concept of foreshortening. This is a hard concept for even experienced artists, so to make it simpler, we traced our hands and feet. The other details were drawn in after. I found the idea for this lesson years ago on the blog Oodles of Art. Over the years, I have adapted this lesson, and this year the results are amazing. I just LOVE these!
Please Note: All images seen below are of my students artwork only. These photos/lessons are not posted in any particular order regarding the flow of my curriculum. OP ART- “3D PAPER CONE DRA…
While I am a firm believer in students reading real books that they choose and doing this often, I also love to include reading games and reading centers in
These all about me, back to school art activities for kids are engaging icebreakers. Encourage creativity and build community during the first week back
There's a lot of ground to cover when you teach creative narrative writing. Here are 5 creative narrative mini-lessons you should be sure to use!
Analyzing character traits is a key fiction reading skill that is needed for successful comprehension. In most cases, authors do not just come out and tell readers the traits that a character possesses. By teaching
These self-portrait drawings by 5th graders were on display at the elementary school at the end of the school year, a nice tribute to the 5t...
what are effective reading comprehension strategies to help readers and struggling readers in your upper elementary classroom? this reading strategies list will help guide your reading instruction
One of the things I do every year that really makes a difference in my students' learning is having them use notebooks to store notes, examples, work, and
Are your students too old for the traditional desk plate name tags? I want my students to have name tags but they feel that the ones with the number lines and other reference items are too young for them. Because of this I have my students design their own name tag. By having them design...
Morphology walls are a great tool in 4th and 5th grade classrooms! Read more and sign up for free posters to make your own morphology wall!
Do you want to keep your students engaged and reading during reading time? Read this post to learn about 10 reading centers for upper elementary.
Free reading comprehension passages for grades 2 - 3
When I started at my new school last year, I came into a new reading program. I was used to doing almost all of my reading instruction WHOLE CLASS, but my school uses a guided reading model all the way up to 5th grade. I definitely had to rethink my reading block! I had done centers in the past, but wanted a really clear way to maximize the time and make the transitions clear for the students. Here's how I do my guided reading block! ROTATIONS We have Guided Reading/Centers Monday-Thursday from about 1:10-2:00 and I rotate through four groups. This means each center is 12 minutes long, with about 30 seconds for a transition. 12 minutes can fly by, so the students have to work on getting those transitions DOWN. I found a FANTASTIC resource by my friend Kristen of Chalk & Apples, and it has made centers SO easy. There are tons of different icons that can be easily swapped out on different days or weeks. I change mine up all the time! In a typical week, I do guided reading with leveled passages on Monday and Wednesday, and we do literature circles on Tuesdays and Thursdays. GROUPS My students are grouped according to DRA levels, because that is what my school uses. You might use AR, Lexile, or another measure. I have four groups: Low, Low-Mid, High-Mid, and High. Each group has a number, but I assign the number randomly so it doesn't match up to skill level in any way. I have 24 students in my class this year, so there will be 6 kids in each group. If you have a larger class, you can still make it work by having your higher groups work on their own while you work with a lower group and just check in! GUIDED READING I LOVE this close reading resource from Fifth in the Middle. I bought the entire bundle so I have TONS of options. Each reading comes in four reading levels, but they are on the same topic and look the same so students don't notice. There is also a paired text that I try to use for morning work toward the end of the week. There are several pages of activities for each passage, and I often have the students start these at the table with me after we've read the passage out loud. When it is their turn for guided reading, the students come to me at our back table with a pencil and a highlighter. I give them their sheets for that day and discuss what we will be looking for while we read (unfamiliar words usually) and we begin reading. I like to make sure each child reads, so however I have to break it up to make that happen. After reading through, I ask them to scan through again to find specific information. This changes week to week, so one time it might be looking for transition phrases, and another it might be looking for dates to create a timeline. Then, we talk about what everyone found and work on putting together the information on the worksheet. I, of course, provide a lot more scaffolding and support to my lower readers, while my high readers are able to do the activity on their own. LIT CIRCLES On the days that we have literature circles, the students still come to the back table with me, but this time they bring their lit circle book (which varies) and their lit circle binder. In their binder, they keep all of their jobs and their reading schedule. I have used about a GAZILLION resources for lit circles (including online blogs), but this one from Pocketful of Primary is my absolute FAVORITE: It is SOO easy to adapt to groups of different sizes and I found it very user-friendly for both the kiddos and for myself! I organize the jobs using a hanging file I found on Amazon. You can find it here: THE OTHER CENTERS So what do the kiddos do during their other blocks of time? Here's some options I cycle through: STAPLES: Partner Reading Each student has a partner from their reading group that they meet up with for this activity. I typically use "I Survived" books or similar short chapter books. I stock up through Scholastic! I have 6 shared books for the entire class, and I place a sheet inside the front cover so the students can write their names and where they ended each day they read. I always have new books ready to go for the students who finish. I do this strictly for fluency, so I don't do quizzes or worksheets. Silent Reading (KBAR) In my class, we call silent reading KBAR- Kick Back and Read. When we do a whole class KBAR, I sometimes take it outside. Spelling (Spelling City) I typically use Spelling City for centers, but sometimes do a worksheet instead. Vocabulary (Quizlet)Quizlet is AMAZING. I love using this for vocabulary! The students really enjoy it as well. Keyboarding (KWT) This is a tough one since monitoring the students' finger placement is so important. I don't do this OFTEN as a center, but throw it in now and again. Writing If we are working on a longer project (such as the state report), I have the students use this chunk of time for that. Otherwise, I sometimes provide a prompt or allow them to free write. Here's one of the resources I use: NoRedInk If you've never used this site, CHECK IT OUT! It's one of the best ways to get some extra grammar practice into your day! Be aware that the initial set up takes a bit of time because the students have to select a bunch of their favorites from different categories: books, tv shows, movies. What's neat is the site uses their preferences and their name + their friends' names when building the practice sentences. The kids get a kick out of it! Task Cards (small group) Students work with their reading group and record their answers on individual answer sheets. I have a huge selection of task cards that I keep in one of these bad boys from Michael's: Cursive (Can Do) I love that my school teaches cursive, but in fifth grade, we don't have a lot of specific time for it. To keep the kid's practicing, I assign pages from our cursive book during centers. Reading Comprehension (Reading Plus) We use Reading Plus, but there are many online reading comprehension sites. Use whatever your district provides or what works for your class! Games I will occasionally throw in a review game for the kids to play with their small group. The key is they have to be short and not too loud! Comment below if you have other questions or want to add some advice on running smooth ELA centers with Guided Reading!
Help students break the reading ‘code’ with these games for teaching themes in upper elementary.
Kids will be WOWED with this hands-on, fall science experiment where they will explore Why do Leaves Change Color for kids! Fun Leaf Activity!
I love this project for translating 3D forms on a 2D surface. Highlight and shadow... blending analogous colors... so fun! I prefer this project on blue and purple construction paper. Black glue and chalk are so nice together! We start by tracing three 6" circles on the paper, then three more half on, to make it look like a snapshot of a pumpkin patch. Next, draw the stem IN THE PUMPKIN adding a vine coming off. Next, draw from the stem the groves of the pumpkin radiating outward. Last step of drawing... add subtle curves from each groove line on the bottom side of the pumpkin, gives it a more organic form. Then, black glue! (India Ink and glue) The next week, we color with chalk pastels, starting with lighter yellow oranges in the center of each section of the pumpkin, then getting darker as we go towards the grooves where the shadow would be. Students love this, they feel like they have really drawn something 3D!
Order of Operations A student asked me today what my favorite subject to teach is and I said, “Math, of course!”. To which, he replied, “What’s your favorite math topic to teach….[paused]…Nevermind, I know it has to be order of operations.” :) He’s not wrong. Room Transformations One of the reas
These all about me, back to school art activities for kids are engaging icebreakers. Encourage creativity and build community during the first week back
elementary art lessons classroom management
Tired of showing your students where to turn in their homework or sharpen their pencil? Here are 17 ways to review classroom procedures that won't make you tear your hair out! P.S. The kids love them too!
Need to help your students get more hands on practice for their vocabulary words? I've got 5 fun vocabulary games you can use right away!
Students learn how to practice drawing quick rectangular shapes and paint warm and cool colors into those shapes using Paul Klee art inspiration and
These all about me, back to school art activities for kids are engaging icebreakers. Encourage creativity and build community during the first week back
Whether you are already using close reading strategies in your own upper elementary classroom or not, you’ll love using free close reading passages like The History of the Chocolate Chip Cookie! By using a purposeful, high interest set of close reading passages with proven reading comprehension strategies, your students will enjoy a greater level of reading success. Here is everything included in your FREE close reading passages download: The History of the Chocolate Chip Cookie Reading Passage (2 Differentiated Levels) 5 Days of Close Reading Activities Text Dependent Questions Written Response Teacher Guide Annotation Guide Printable Version Interactive Google Classroom
These classroom art activities inspired by artist Romero Britto are a great art project to help students join the Happy Art Movement.
Fourth graders made these neat Heather Galler self-portraits. We learned about Etsy, a website were artists can sell their artwork and keep a better percentage of the profits than selling some of the same art in an art gallery. Buying art on Etsy is a great way to support artists directly. Here is Heather Galler's popular Etsy page! We talked about the characteristics and subject matter that Galler uses. Here is some of her art: In order to create our own Galler style self-portraits, we first traced the outlines of our facial features onto a photograph with colored pencil. We talked about more realistic ways to draw facial features. Next, we sharpied the outlines onto a plastic transparency. Finally, students were encouraged to color their artwork in the style of Galler including many colors and shapes. Students used a color scheme of warm colors and cool colors. In order to create contrast, students planned were to put groups of warm or cool colors. Enjoy! Goals: I can... - Explain what Etsy is - Tell about Heather Galler's artwork - Create a self-portrait in the style of Heather Galler - Explain what a self-portrait is
