Students in 3rd grade will be creating these fun 3D winter mugs soon! I plan on showing this video to my students, before and during the creating process during art class. The video discusses the …
This leads to fun winter art sub plans worksheets, art sub lessons, and early finishers worksheets.
Try out this oil pastel candle art lesson for illuminating and expressive results! All you need is oil pastels and paper.
Grandma Moses Winter Houses is the perfect project for cozy Kindergarten students. It combines math and science, architecture and painting.
Creating the illusion of depth on a flat surface isn’t as hard as you think! We learned that when viewing a landscape, things that are closer appear larger and lower in the picture, while things th…
Hello and happy almost-to-winter-break! I've noticed that the closer we get to the two-week break, the more distracted the students get. I've been trying something different this year to channel their energy- Christmas centers! The class is divided into four groups and they have about 7 minutes at each center. Each grade level has 2 centers focused on a rhythm or melodic concept they've been working on and 2 centers focused on Christmas music. Here is an example with 4th grade: Center 1: SMART Board Christmas Around the World Aileen Miracle's excellent Christmas Around the World file has pictures, information, and video links showing how Christmas is celebrated in different parts of the world. The students love it! Center 2: Ti Tika Flashcard playing At this station students practice playing rhythms. Thanks to Glitter Meets Glue for the snowflake clipart Center 3: Santa Hats Post Office The Santa Hat post office games have been a big hit in my classroom! The students spread their cards out in front of them and then take turns calling out a card for the others to find. I let them choose between speaking the rhythm with rhythm syllables or clapping. It's interesting to see which students choose to clap and challenge their classmates! In third grade I'm calling all the cards and using this activity as an assessment for identifying patterns with tikka tikka. Center 4: Nutcracker Selections Listening This center includes headphones, an old iPod touch, and rhythm play a longs for Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy and Russian Dance (Trepak) We have practiced the play a longs in class together as a large group. I give students the option to play a long or just listen to the selections. Many choose to play along. For most of the classes I am able to "float" and help with any technical difficulties or group disputes, (which occasionally seem to surface!) For 3rd and 2nd grade I've been able to assess students at the post office center. It's been a more relaxed time then I usually have this time of year and the kids have enjoyed the variety! This week I'll be doing sing a longs to finish December. I hope you are having a great time in your classroom. Do you have activities you love to use this time of year? Please share!
A Story + Art = A Great stART! Welcome to stART! I hope that you will enjoy our book and art project and maybe even share your own too! For an explanation of stART click here. This week we read Do You Have a Hat? by Eileen Spinelli, which is a cute rhyming book that tells about the different hats that some historical people have worn. We actually got this book for free inside a cheerios box when Emily was a baby! We also read Go, Dog. Go! (Beginner Books) by P. D. Eastman. This is one of Emily's favorite books and it has a lot of great concepts in it, such as in and out, under over, colors, stop and go. Emily's favorite part of the book is when one of the dogs say "Do you like my hat?" and the other dog says "I do not like that hat" Both of these books inspired us to make our own hats! I found the directions for folding a paper hat here and made one for Emily and one for me. Then I gave Emily some art supplies and let her decorate her hat however she wanted to. Emily picked a green hat and wanted to color it with a green marker, green is curently her favorite color! Emily enjoyed gluing some sequens and spangles on to her hat. She also glued some feathers on and then added some sequens and spangles on top of the feather...I was very impresed! Our finished hats! Do you like our hats??? Emily decided to try her hat on Juliette too! My Family My Forever~Eating the Alphabet Ten Kids and a Dog - Ten Apples up on Top Superheroes and Princesses - Draw Me a Star BoysRuleMyLife - Planes and How They Work Jolly Mommy and Little Mouse handmade beginnings - Growing Vegetable Soup Mouse Grows Mouse Learns - Arnolds Apple Tree Almost Unschoolers - Snow Pumpkin Growing Up Our Style The Harris Family (pumpkins) Mouse Paint Blackberry Banquet : w / blackberry dyed playdoh+paint stART : Blueberries for Sal @ Smart Pumpkin Patch Izzie Mac and Me Rogers Family Circus ( SeasonsofArnoldsAppleTr ee) The Adventures of Bear The ramblings and adventures of a SAHM Monkey See Monkey Do (Mrs Wishy Washys farm) This linky list is now closed. Get your own FREE Linky Tools Posted by Michelle at 9:16 PM Labels: Books, stART
My students have been on a BIG winter homes kick per our last Winter Village lesson. So I decided to encourage them to take their imaginations a step further and give them the opportunity to create the interior of a winter home all decorated for the holidays. Now, in full disclosure, I actually came up with this lesson
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. 3-D WINTER MUGS This lesson in…
Art and math projects about circles, art and math lesson plans, ideas for STEAM lessons, shape art projects
Unique as a radial snowflake, these beautiful designs connect math and art in a cool way. Great for middle grade students.
So I kinda sorta told the kids that if they painted and printed their winter selfies really well, we just might get the magic of snow. Snow seems to elude us in these parts...but not this year. Turns
Just wanted to share some AMAZING pieces created by my 5th graders this week! Check out the original lesson post here.
It's Monday, which means once again, it's time to highlight some of the recent community submissions posted to the Math Craft corkboard. I also thought that we'd try and create something known as an "Orderly Tangle" or "Polylink". This week we had a few submissions based off the projects of the week: creating parabolic arcs from straight lines and creating concentric circles.
After many watercolor projects behind us, I was looking for a quick project to do with my kids in a dry technique that would give reliable and bold results. We had not done any oil pastel projects in ages, so I though I'd start there. I discovered this amazing artist on youtube: Art Arena. He creates stunning, bright oil pastel landscapes using a blending technique, and incorporates silhouetted images with soft graphite for a powerful effect. This project is directly inspired by his 'Aurora Night Drawing' piece. I loved the mixed media aspect and the process, and since my kids love drawing in graphite, I thought I'd give this one a go. In the video, the artist draws the deer out by hand. This is a difficult task for any aged student. I wanted the deer to be spot on for a strong and graphic effect, so I opted for a trace-and-transfer technique, and created a stencil to trace on their paper, which would allow my kids to incorporate a perfect deer of their choice .... and learning a trace-and-tranfer technique plus making a stencil are added benefit, AND fun processes. In prep for this stage, I printed out many different deer in silhouette (google search 'deer silhouette') and sized them to be able to fit nicely on our A4 (8x12 inches) sized paper (so the deer are roughly 6x8cm or 2.5x3 inches without antlers). The artist uses a super soft and dark B10 graphite pencil. I could not find these anywhere, so purchased B9 pencils which did the job. In a pinch, I'm sure a B8 would also work, but the darker and softer the better. He also uses a 'glass marking pencil' for the aurora.... which I also purchased cheaply in a 10 pack from Amazon. A white colored pencil will not substitute for this, since it won't mark over top of oil pastel. For the pine trees I also printed out several different silhouetted styles of pine trees, to give the kids some individual options on how to draw them. To begin: Borders: Students taped down the borders of their paper with painters tape or washi tape. We love how this gives our work a crisp white border when done. Coloring background: Students choose 4 oil pastel colors plus black - light, medium and dark green, and dark blue. These colors were laid down with light pressure from bottom to top of paper, from lightest to darkest. The top of the sky was colored black. Lightly applied oil pastel *Use oil pastels lightly when coloring. We discovered that they blend much better when not applied too thickly. Thickly applied oil pastel blends difficultly, and leaves blobs of unblended pastel. No good. *Since oil pastels smear easily, we did the bottom strip (the ground) in black LAST, to prevent it from dirtying our light green. A graphite pencil was used to draw a clean line of black between the black and the light green, to cover up any remaining white of the paper, and to add some bumps here and there to recreate an uneven, earthy ground. Blending: Using a tissue paper that we folded as many times as we could into a triangle, we blended out colors, starting with the lighter color first (light green) and working out way up to the top. This required serious arm muscles. Working in a circular motion on lightly applied oil pastel is key. Stencil: Students chose a deer silhouette they like. Deers were traced with tracing paper. Tracing paper was flipped over onto cardstock and the lines were retraced through the back, which transfers our deer onto our cardstock. Deers were carefully cut out. Tracing the deer * We chose NOT to trace the antlers because cutting them out would be nearly impossible. Instead, we free-hand drew them on our deer once our deer was traced onto our paper. Trace and transfer. Making a stencil Tracing our stencil: Students placed their deer stencil in the middle of their paper, with feet firmly planted on the ground (no flouting deer, please!) and they traced the deer stencil. They then free-hand drew their antlers. Deer were colored in graphite pencil AFTER drawing the trees, to prevent smudging the soft graphite. Trees: Students drew 5-7 vertical lines on either side of their deer. Trees are longer towards the outer edge of their paper and getting increasingly short as they get closer to the deer. This give the illusion of depth. Trees were colored in with graphite pencil. I demo'd some ways to do this on the white board, and students had pine tree silhouette visuals to look at too. Important is that trees are dark, super pointy at the top and slightly wider as they go down, and that they get increasing short towards the deer. After trees were drawn in darkly, the deer was colored in darkly with graphite. Aurora: Using a white glass marking pencil, students created flowing aurora across their sky. Students were encouraged to think of their aurora as flowing waves, or like pouring milk, NOT streaks of white scratchy lines. This requires using our white pencil lightly in a careful back-and-forth motion until we achieve the clean shape and creamy white. Stars: With a white paint pen (we used Posca) students created stars. For added depth, we included small and larger stars. Small stars are further away and closer together, while large stars are closer to us and appear wider apart. Hands were wiped down with baby wipes (this is a messy project) and then the taped borders were carefully removed to reveal a crisp white border. This is a fun project with lots of techniques, and gives bright, strong, boldly contrasting results. Ages 8-11 Ages 9-11 Adult class Adult class Examples of aurora Blending with a tissue Creating the aurora
Unique as a radial snowflake, these beautiful designs connect math and art in a cool way. Great for middle grade students.
Andy Goldsworthy: Land Art Please see my video below for a fun new lesson. This one will be sure to keep you on your toes and get you outsi...
I had a great response on the holidays bows that I had my students work on last quarter create. There were a lot of comments and due to the response I wanted to give you a little more on the lesson. So as a Christmas gift from me to you, I have created a step by step worksheet on how to create a holiday bow. I uploaded it as a Google Doc (click here). It's just in time for the holidays!
Winds are howling outside and the temps are dropping fast! So…..I guess it is time to start creating some beautiful winter projects. I love the change of seasons and winter does not disappoin…
. Sometimes my lessons are seasonally appropriate. The ice in North Texas has finally melted but while it was here this week...
A collaborative blog by Pre K and Kindergarten specialists. Child growth and development, information, free printables.
Ibland går jag in i en kreativ process som bara växer och utvecklas och nästan tar över hela mitt tankeliv. Det händer inte alltid men ...
Don't you think this is all one needs? A fireplace, a glass of nice red wine and Agatha Christie!
These lovely angel icons were made by my first graders. Icons were first introduced as a visual language for those who could not read. They were a way to introduce stories or figures in the form of images. I showed a few examples of icons throughout history and the kids came up with stories of what a particular icon might suggest. That was pretty cool because we actually experienced how icons were first used. Process: Basic Angel Figure Directional drawing of basic angel figure (takes 5-10 minutes). I always say to them to feel free to change or add anything they'd like. Color in with crayons. I passed out gold paint and brushes for them to paint the background. These are 9x12 and we finished in one 45 minute class period.
A beautiful art project for kids perfect for winter using all kinds of super fun art techniques! (Goes great with The BFG by Roald Dahl!)
Himmeli is a traditional Finnish handcraft that is generally done at Christmas time
In honor of the Christmas season, I thought it would be a nice idea to look at an artist famous for his beautiful and elegant angel paintings. I’m speaking, of course, about Fra Angelico.
Altered Altoid Tin Vintage winter background is courtesy takeabreak, thank you :)
We do this every year... and it's always a huge mess. one year my son kept cutting gun shapes and went around and shot us... but this year I thought we could try some patterns... first:
Here are some of my favorite 7 winter art lessons and coordinating picture books that I have done throughout the years that always bring a smile to my
Christmas is one of my favorite times of year! This is one of my favorite lessons with Christmas composition! Students use manipulatives and make ornaments!
Könnt Ihr Euch noch an meine Gastbloggerin Bine erinnern? :o) Sie hat dieses Jahr fleißig an einem Gartenbuch gearbeitet! Dafür hat sie ihren (nicht gerade kleinen) Garten überarbeitet, dekoriert, be
Aloha everyone! One. More. Day! We can do it!! This doesn't quite fit me. I need a palm tree on the top, instead of a snowflake. I made this fun video this week. It's the Hawaiian version of the 12 days of Christmas. The original version has 10 cans of beer and 12 televisions. Don't think that version is appropriate for the classroom. I will be headed to colder weather soon. We leave for Arizona on Monday to see my family. My daughters are so excited and their cousins can't wait either. The desert is very chilly in the winter, but very pretty. We had a really busy week and some fun activities along the way. The beginning of the week we made some cute Pop Art Stockings. The kids really enjoyed making them and I thought they came out great! Each year I stuff their stockings with a candy cane, a pencil, some stickers and a little card that I make. It's an easy and inexpensive gift. After lots of discussion, the second grade team decided to make puzzle piece ornaments. They were really simple and the glitter and paint made them really pretty. I also had my students do a home project created by Nicole Shelby. They had to create a new suit for Santa since his old suit was ruined in the dryer. I got some pretty fun suits returned to school. This Santa has eyes all over to watch all the kids! Cowboy Santa Ninja Santa Surfer Santa This next one is my favorite. The student's father is a tattoo artist. It is just so funny! Today was our last full day and we had a gift exchange, lots of sugary treats and we watched a Disney Christmas movie. Tomorrow is our Winter Performance. My class is singing "Run, Run, Rudolph" and "Somewhere Over The Rainbow". We have a new music teacher this year and she put the whole production together! Amazing!! The upper grade classes wrote their own versions of popular tunes to fit our Hawaiian lifestyle. Very cute. So tomorrow afternoon I am going to kick back and enjoy my break, for 3 weeks!! I have done most of my shopping online and sent all packages to my mom's house. Santa even got a little something for me. Toms Women's Desert Wedge High Boot Very appropriate since I will be in the desert! I plan to also do a bit of after Christmas shopping. There are so many stores on the Mainland that we just don't have here. We head back to the islands on January 2nd. Teacher's report back on the 9th and students return on the 13th!! I am really looking forward to reenergizing and starting a brand new year!! How was your last week? Any exciting plans for the break? I'd love to hear all about it!!
Now that winter is upon us, it's a good time to share ideas on how to incorporate Vivaldi's Winter into your classroom.
Hope everyone had a fine Christmas, indeed! The Music Hour, First Book edited by Osbourne McConathy, W. Otto Miessner, Edward Bailey Birge, and Mabel E. Bray. Illustrated by Shirley Kite. Silver, Burdett and Co., copyright 1927.
