Art In Nature: Andy Goldsworthy Third Grade Art Lesson Written by Michelle Smit for Duniway Elementary, Adapted for use at Georg...

Kindergarten Rocks! 5 year olds are the best. I was a kindergarten teacher for many years before I became an art teacher. The kids are so full of wonder and possibility. I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorite art activities for 5 year olds. Some are ones I’ve done more recently, […]

(born November 15, 1920) Wayne Thiebaud is an American painter whose most famous works are of cakes, pastries, boots, toilets, toys and lipsticks. While he was with the Navy, Thiebaud spent time in…

Wayne Thiebaud is one of the California greats - famous for his gentle paintings of beautifully arranged baked goods. This is a fun lesson ...

January issue of arTree magazine is here! And art docents at many schools started teaching the kids about Pieter Bruegel and the atmospheric perspective in his landscapes. In a shortcut: Pieter was…

The lesson’s focus was on assemblage art with found objects and cast-off materials. We looked at the work of Louise Nevelson, an American sculptor (emigrated from Russia when she was three ye…

Wayne Thiebaud is one of the California greats - famous for his gentle paintings of beautifully arranged baked goods. This is a fun lesson ...

Two gorgeous winter landscapes to draw inspiration from are Monet's Magpie, and John Henry Twachtman's american take, Winter Harmony (above). Julie Cortinas directed us to this great lesson at our January art committee meeting. There are many variations of this to be found online; this one from Deep Space Sparkle is the one Julie and I both used. Here are some additional practical tips: -slideshare presentation found here -for art background, we discussed Monet's Magpie painting (see slideshow for visual). This link from the Musee d'Orsay, where the painting hangs, will give you a great overview of the painting and its reception in Paris when Monet painted it. (We also have a Smart About Art: Monet book in the art cabinet that you may want to read to the kids if time allows.) -after we had a brief discussion about the inspiration, we discussed shadows. To help make this discussion more concrete, I brought along a flashlight and a stick. With the lights off, I shone the flashlight on the stick from different sides, making it really clear that a shadow falls on the opposite side of the light source. It's nice to point out to the kids that all of your shadows in a painting will usually fall the same direction (if you are trying to make a picture that is realistic rather than abstract). -I was concerned that it was going to take a long time to distribute masking tape and that it would be difficult for kids to tear (I did this lesson for both second and fourth grade classes). It turned out not to be a problem - I walked around and taped a length of tape on the sides of everyone's desks (maybe 3 minutes); and all of the kids were able to tear the tape on their own. -We sprinkled salt on the picture to create a snow-flaky texture (you can see this in the example above). I have since found out that using salt this way makes the picture not totally archival. Just FYI. -I used the liquid watercolors - love them. Every desk had a little plastic bowl and I alternated water, blue paint, and purple paint (we kept the tones cool for winter) in the bowls for the kids to share, which worked fine. Just make sure and remind them to rinse their brush in the water bowl before changing colors - or it might be a better plan to keep the brushes with the colors. VARIATION: -instead of cool winter tones, use warm red, yellow, brown to make an autumn background if you are looking for a seasonal fall lesson. Maybe after the tape comes off the kids can use gold liquid watercolor to add a few gold leaves, still on the birch/aspen trees and on the ground (*send me a picture if you try this! I'll add it here!)

Wayne Thiebaud is one of the California greats - famous for his gentle paintings of beautifully arranged baked goods. This is a fun lesson ...

In Art class, 2nd graders reviewed the lines horizontal, vertical and curved. They used a ruler to help draw the horizontal and vertical lines that you see. Next, 2rd graders traced their hand to get curved lines. Students also reviewed the warm colors (red, orange, yellow) and cool colors (blue, green, purple) while coloring their artworks.

This week, 3rd grade started their Henri Rousseau & Cassie Stephens inspired tigers! Here's Mr. Rousseau's painting we're getting inspiration from! Tiger in a Tropical Storm Here's how we created ours! My first two 3rd grade classes painted a couple of sheets of orange painted paper, and then the rest of the classes were able to draw their tigers, and make some green painted paper for the rest of the project! We're going to be making a collage on blue or black paper, by creating these tigers on the orange paper, and leaves on the green paper. We'll also add a tail, so it looks like the tiger is peeking out of the leaves! Can't wait to see the finished results! Here they are painting paper! I love all the different types of texture they added! Mrs. Stephens has a great video on youtube, showing you exactly how to draw the tiger, and she talks about the elements of art used in this project! Here's the link Cassie Stephen's How to draw a tiger Mrs. Fambrough's class is doing a fabulous job!! Stay tuned for some awesome art!

Today we are going to talk about positive & negative space in art, but first I’ll introduce you to the work of an artist named Maurits Cornelis Escher He’s more well known by his initials: MC E…

materials: sharpies colored markers paper Artist Background: Hokusai was one of the great Japanese woodblock print artists. We watched this really great animated video from youtube here about the life of Hokusai (I used the ladybug to project it off my iphone screen. It would have been better if I brought in my speakers, though). **NOTE ABOUT THE YOUTUBE VIDEO: stop before the credits! There's lots of sumo wrestler butt cheek. It's totally innocent but might be distracting for the kids :) After the movie, I brought up a picture of his famous The Great Wave woodblock (pictured at top), and we talked about how it's divided into sections: the background, which is plain, and then the waves themselves. Here is the 2-slide slideshow I used. The second slide I am so sorry to say is an image I found on pinterest and have not been able to track it back to the original artist, so there is no artist credit... but we used his/her interpretation of this work as our inspiration, dividing the waves into sections and filling each with different patterns. How: have the kids look at the Great Wave woodblock and begin drawing waves on their paper. (It helps to show them on the board how to just start, drawing a great big wave across the middle.) Then from there, they can sub-divide that wave and even throw in a mountain (Hokusai's is Mt. Fuji) or volcano... Once they have waves, they can then fill them in with whatever patterns they like. You might want to have some kids come up to the board and share a pattern...

I found this idea on fine lines' blog, and it was really fun (albeit quite messy - bring wipes!) in both first grade and fifth grade. Materials: watercolor paper sharpies red tempera (or acrylic, if you have it) paint pan watercolors brushes paper cups for red paint and water paper plates for tracing Cezanne background - Cezanne is considered by many, including Picasso, to be the true father of modern art. On the Metropolitan Museum of Art website there is an amazing, really fun interactive piece on Cezanne and his apples. If you have a smartphone or ipad, I'd recommend bringing the site up on that, and using the ladybug to project it to the kids, using that to guide your discussion (there might be a way to connect your device with a cord, but you can just actually stick your device under the ladybug, turn on the ladybug, and line it up to project the screen, without any cords). Take a minute or two to check it out the Met site here. Here is the slideshow I used to discuss his work with the kids (although I wish I'd used the Met one instead!). We discussed the paintings using the questions: "What do you see?" "What more can you find?" and "Why?" Some of the things we specifically discussed were how Cezanne's apples are not all plain red, but have lots of different colors and reflections and even shapes. We also discussed shadows. Look at the paintings and notice with the kids how Cezanne represents the shadows of the apples. At the end of the slideshow, there is a photograph of apples on a plate. This is what we painted, for our still life. How: For younger kids, have them use the paper plate to trace a circle on the paper with the sharpie. (Older kids can just draw a large circle). Then, using the thick red tempera or acrylic paint, have them paint their apples. You might want to remind them to leave a bit of white in the apple to represent the reflected light. Then, using their pan watercolors, they can do the tablecloth, the plate, etc. Once the red dries a bit some adventurous kids might even want to layer in some other colors onto the apples. Some kids might also want to add shadows.

This week students will begin new projects to learn about the art element LINE. Here is a glimpse of each grade level's assignment: KINDERGARTEN: 3D Line Collage Students will use many different kinds of objects to create a college of varied lines. GRADE 1: Directional Lines and Warm or Cool Colors Students will explore the idea of line showing direction (horizontal, vertical, diagonal) and warm colors coming forward while cool colors go back. They will use crayon and watercolor. GRADE 2: Keith Haring and Gesture Drawing Students will learn about artist Keith Haring and use his figures to learn about how line shows movement. They will use oil pastels. GRADE 3: Harold and the Purple Crayon and Contour Line Students will read the book Harold and the Purple Crayon and create a new setting for Harold through the use of contour line. Students will use crayons. GRADE 4: 3D Shapes Students will learn about the concept of one-point perspective to help create a 3D look on a 2D surface. They will create 3D shapes using colored pencil. GRADE 5: Falling for Foreshortening Students will revisit the idea of perspective and showing depth and 3-dimensionality by learning about foreshortening. Students will use tempera paint.

Inspired by illustrator, Marz Jr. 5th grade students looked at pictures of skyscrapers and created a retro line drawing of their observations.

slideshow of art from students Print used: A Sunday on La Grande Jatte Set-up: Pencil 5×7 watercolor paper Q-tips (cheap ones are best, less puffy cotton) Small dixie cups or tray of primary …

This tree collage art project is a great way to teach young artists about cutting and overlapping shapes. The branches are simplified to keep things easy.

Ton Schulten is one of my all time favorite artists! I discovered him years ago when I found a calendar full of his paintings when visiting the Toledo Museum of Art. I was hooked! I love his amazing colors and abstract style. I created a Prezi of his landscape and cityscapes to share with my classes, (Ton Schulten Prezi). I find it very interesting how he adds lots of vertical lines to his landscapes, a composition usually created with more horizontal lines. This lesson was a COLOR VALUE lesson. Students used pre-mixed colors and various TINTS to paint in city buildings. The students mixed their own tints of blue for the sky portion. The last step, we used India Ink to outline and decorate our city buildings. This was a great lesson for every student. It was hard to chose which ones to photography! They will look great later in a group hanging in our hallways!

This 3rd grade lesson was related to the Chinese scroll paintings. I have taught this lovely project for several years and I know I saw a version of it online when I first started teaching it. I did some internet digging and this awesome scroll project from Oodles of Art looks like it might have been where I saw it. The students studied Asia in their classroom and we learned a little about Chinese art through a video: Oriental Art- … Read more... →

(born November 15, 1920) Wayne Thiebaud is an American painter whose most famous works are of cakes, pastries, boots, toilets, toys and lipsticks. While he was with the Navy, Thiebaud spent time in…

Art projects for kids. Perfect for art docents!

These primary colour gradients were painted by year 5 and 6 students. The process is simple but the results are striking. This is a slight variation on my original more detailed Primary Colour Gradient lesson. To read about the process involved please take a peek here. This time around I supplied the students with cardboard shape tracers to cut out their chosen shape before sticking it onto the background gradient. Last time every child used a circle, but I realised that the results would be improved with more variation. What do you think?

Room 10 Art Lesson 1 Wed, Oct 5th, 2011 ART REVIEW and the ELEMENT of LINE Objectives: To review the Elements & Principles of Art. To discuss line types and the use of ha…

First Grade Art Lesson Adapted with permission for use at George Kelly Elementary by Lynne Millar from a lesson for Duniway Elementary by Michelle Smit Principle: Color and Shape Concept: Strong visual art can be created using cut paper and abstracted shapes to create rhythm, movement, balance and variety. Objective: Students will create a paper cut-out collage (a drawing with scissors) that uses complimentary colors, shows repetition, and design through color, shape, and size. Supplies: *One 11x17-inch piece of colored construction paper per student (have a variety of colors available) *Construction paper scraps and rectangular scraps in strong, bold colors. *Scissors *Glue Sticks *Color Wheel Pre-Class Prep: None Set-up: *Set out a variety of 11x17-inch colored construction paper *Have students choose one piece of colored construction paper *Place piles of paper scraps and rectangular scraps of various sizes on each table *Have glue sticks ready for distribution, but do not do so until each child has worked with the paper scraps. Art Appreciation Lesson: Summarize for the kids information about the interesting life of Henri Matisse – see end of the lesson for biographical information. Familiarize yourself with this beforehand so you can use your own words. Another idea is to read the kids a story about Henri Matisse: a great one is the biography of Matisse in the Smart About Art series (check with Lynne Millar if you would like to borrow this book). This is a great way, if time permits, to give the kids a vivid glimpse into Matisse’s life. Or – perhaps see if your teacher would like reading this book to the class in the week before the lesson. Power Point Slide Presentation: 1T This is a photograph of Matisse. 2. Look at this painting Matisse made of his wife! Have you ever seen anyone wearing such an exciting hat? What color did Matisse paint her skin? Her neck? When Matisse got older, he got really sick and had to stay in his bed. So he started making collages – pictures with paper and scissors – to make himself happy. He painted his own paper and drew shapes on the ceiling from his bed with a piece of charcoal connected to a long stick. He would also cut out the shapes and stick them to the wall. 3. This one is called The Sea. Do you see how the shapes in the front stand out? It’s because he made them all white, so they pop forward. How does this picture make you feel? 4. Here’s another cut out. It’s very simple, but very harmonious. Do you like it? 5. This one started out as a cut-out, but then Matisse turned it into stained glass window, for the wall of a church in France. Do you see how it’s a design about Christmas? Look how he uses opposite colors that make each other really pop out. Activity: Have the students cut out a large rectangle or use a rectangular scrap in a contrasting color and have them glue it down to the middle of their paper. Parents, please allow students to do this themselves. It’s better if it’s not a perfect rectangle. This will divide their background into three rectangular shapes creating a more interesting background. The colored stripe does not have to be exactly in the middle. The rectangle can be fat or thin. Their paper can be vertical or horizontal. They can use whatever color they want for the stripe, but dark colors seem to look the best. Then have the students use the scissors to cut out simple shapes with strong, bold colored construction paper found. Cut out a variety of sizes from small to large. Suggest pasting down a small square or rectangle of another color behind their cutouts to create more depth. Remind them to use complimentary colors whenever possible. Use curvilinear shapes in addition to straight ones. Once the students have enough shapes to fill up their 11x17-inch paper, have the students arrange their shapes on the paper BEFORE passing out the glue. Have the students glue their shapes to their paper. Have them title their art and write this on a label and stick to the back of the paper. Vocabulary: Complimentary colors - colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel Abstract Art – Creating art that is not a realistic image, but an imaginative, creative, expressive way to show the essence of something. (Kid Words: Weird, twisted, crazy, strange) Curvilinear – A line that curves Background Information: Henri Matisse - 1869-1954 Henri Matisse was born as the son of a grain merchant in the Picardy region of northern France. He studied law and worked as a law clerk. When Henri Matisse was 21 years old he became seriously ill. During the phase of convalescence Matisse started painting and discovered his love for art, which should become his life-long passion. Two years later, in 1892, he gave up his career as a lawyer. He attended art classes at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and dabbled in different styles. He then was influenced by the impressionist and post-impressionist painters Pisarro, Cezanne, van Gogh, Gauguin and Paul Signac and by the paintings of W. Turner. Around the year 1905 he finally found his own style characterized by daring, bright colors executed in a broad brush stroke. The Master of Colors After an exhibition of their works in 1905 at the Salon d'Automne the group around Matisse and Andre Derain was ironically and pejoratively dubbed Les Fauves, which literally means The Wild Beasts. From 1905 to 1906 Matisse painted one of his best paintings, The Joy of Life. It is considered to be one of the most important works of Twenty Century art and was bought by the famous art collector Dr. Albert C. Barnes. This painting and the whole Barnes collection was veiled from the public for 72 years. Finally the collection of the Barnes Foundation was opened to the art world again in 1993 and can be visited outside Philadelphia. The American writer Gertrude Stein and her brother Leo were early collectors and supporters of Matisse paintings. Another admirer became Pablo Picasso with whom he exchanged paintings in 1907. After World War I, Matisse had gained a high reputation and was an internationally recognized artist. In 1917 he left Paris and settled in Nice in the South of France where he remained until the end of his life. In 1925 he received the French Legion of Honor award. The Late Years In 1941 Matisse had an abdominal cancer surgery which had a devastating effect on his health and ability to paint. He was unable to stand upright in front of an easel. The artist therefore turned to another form of artistic expression. He created paper cut-outs in the same vivid, strong colors and daring compositions known from his paintings. He had an assistant and could work lying in bed or sitting comfortably in an arm-chair. Henri Matisse died on November 3, 1954 in Nice as an internationally well known and highly reputable artist. He had continued creating paper cutout works until the day of his death. Pablo Picasso once said about the artist: "All things considered, there is only Matisse". "I have always tried to hide my efforts and wished my works to have the light joyousness of springtime, which never lets anyone suspect the labors it has cost me." "In modern art, it is undoubtedly to Cezanne that I owe the most." "A colorist makes his presence known even in a single charcoal drawing." "The essential thing is to spring forth, to express the bolt of lightning one senses upon contact with a thing. The function of the artist is not to translate an observation but to express the shock of the object on his nature; the shock, with the original reaction." Article by Dieter Wanczura, from ww.artelino.com

Wayne Thiebaud is one of the California greats - famous for his gentle paintings of beautifully arranged baked goods. This is a fun lesson for kids because it is so easy to relate to his happy art, and it's a stirring activity to imagine row upon row of delectable cookies, pies, cakes, donuts, etc. It's also easy to customize for different ages. Materials: cardstock for template, scissors to cut the cardstock, large white paper, sharpies, and chalk pastels Presentation: find slideshow here. Some simple facts about Mr. Thiebaud (pronounced "Tee-bo") are included in the slide presentation. Additionally you can read about his life here and here and share what seems relevant to you. Activity: pass out cardstock squares and have the kids draw a shape of their choice with sharpie to be their template. Have them think of something sweet a la the paintings they saw in the slideshow - a lollipop, donut, cupcake, slice of pie, etc. {To do this in younger grades, you could have the templates already cut depending on the time you have - or even make copies of papers with the shapes already drawn, and skip to the coloring with chalk pastel step.} Then have the kids place the template on their white paper and outline their shape with sharpie. Have them repeat as they like on the page: show them how they can make rows, or whatever kind of pattern they like. Once the shapes are drawn, the children are to use the chalk pastels to fill in their shapes.

Just a couple weeks ago, my new batch of Kindergarteners walked through the doors of the Art Room for the first time. Many of them looked up and around the room, taken aback by all of the colors, …

I found this lesson idea over at Art Projects for Kids and decided to try it with my grade three students. I am a new fan of Amedeo Modigliani and the kids are too. After looking at many of the ar…

Ton Schulten is one of my all time favorite artists! I discovered him years ago when I found a calendar full of his paintings when visiting the Toledo Museum of Art. I was hooked! I love his amazing colors and abstract style. I created a Prezi of his landscape and cityscapes to share with my classes, (Ton Schulten Prezi). I find it very interesting how he adds lots of vertical lines to his landscapes, a composition usually created with more horizontal lines. This lesson was a COLOR VALUE lesson. Students used pre-mixed colors and various TINTS to paint in city buildings. The students mixed their own tints of blue for the sky portion. The last step, we used India Ink to outline and decorate our city buildings. This was a great lesson for every student. It was hard to chose which ones to photography! They will look great later in a group hanging in our hallways!

1. Partner Up! During the classroom discussion about the artworks, ask a question and have the students stand up and share their responses with the student next to them. This not only gets the “wiggles” out but also allows every … Continued

Wanted to start the year with a goal setting activity this year and the kids did just awesome. The product turned out cuter than expected, ...

Happy Friday all! I am not going to lie, I came home right away and took a 3 hour nap! I was SO dead tired. I am actually wanting to head back to bed! So sad! But I wanted to share a few things with you! First, the winner of my Teacher Appreciation Giveaway is I have sent you an email! Congrats! Second, today my kids didn't have specials so I found a simple and fun art project for them to do on Pinterest! It's called Dots n' Spots! Here are some pictures from today! Here's to a great weekend:)

Materials: paper for background, newspaper, colored paper scraps, glue stick and scissors Background Information: "When I look at a wildlife or nature subject, I don’t see the feathers in the wings, I just count the wings. I see exciting shapes, color combinations, patterns, textures, fascinating behavior and endless possibilities for making interesting pictures. I regard the picture as an ecosystem in which all the elements are interrelated, interdependent, perfectly balanced, without trimming or unutilized parts; and herein lies the lure of painting; in a world of chaos, the picture is one small rectangle in which the artist can create an ordered universe." -Charley Harper Charley Harper (1922-2007) lived in Ohio for most of his adult life, and was acclaimed for his simplified, graphic, and witty images of nature. Many of his beautiful pictures portrayed birds. This lesson contrasts Harper's minimalist art with the more realistic paintings of James Audubon (1785 - 1851), whose life goal was to scientifically document through his paintings the birds of North America. Take a minute to read a little about Audubon before the lesson (here's a link to the wikipedia page on him). His life was super interesting, and worthwhile summarizing for the kids. After giving the kids a little information about Harper and Audubon, show them the slide presentation (here's the link) and ask some open ended questions, like: -compare the styles of the two artists: how are they similar? How are they different? (For lower grades, comparing these two styles is a great way to teach the concept of abstract vs. realistic art.) -Look also at the backgrounds. How do the details in background, or the artist's decision to leave them out, affect the feel of a picture? -Audubon was painting in a time before cameras. How do you think that affected the way he wanted to paint his pictures of birds? -another idea to make it even more fun - when Gina did this, she printed out pictures of Harper and Audubon and taped them on the board. She had the kids match pictures she printed out of various paintings to the artist who did them. Fun! Then take a minute to break down how to draw a really simple bird for the kids. I drew something along these lines on the board: The project: Make a bird collage inspired by Charley Harper. Inspired by elementary school works from Mrs. Knight's Smartest Artists blog Because our time was short (I only had 40 minutes to do this lesson), we left the background of our papers white and I actually really like the simplicity of the finished pictures. Very Harper-esque if you ask me. If you have more time, it could look amazing to have the kids do watercolor washes and collage on that, but you'd have to figure out how to get the papers dry enough for the glue sticks to work. (Maybe paint before the slideshow? I'm not sure if that would give you enough time...Let me know, anyone, if you try it this way). Anyway: the first thing is to have the kids make their branches by tearing strips of newspaper and gluing them down. Remind the kids that branches come in all different shapes and sizes so they don't get too stressed about having their pictures look a certain way. Have them play around with branch placement. If some kids want to make nests instead of branches, great. After the branches are glued down, they can start working on cutting their bird shapes out of the colored paper scraps and gluing them down, referencing the idea of breaking down the form of a bird into simple shapes like ovals, circles, triangles and rectangles. Possibilities to introduce to the kids could include using different colors of paper for layers, adding in background elements like clouds and sun, and thinking about different bird poses (this one is flying away. I love it!)

Liz did this fun drawing and color activity in the second grade, and reported that it was a huge hit with the kids. Looks so fun! The link to the original lesson on Deep Space Sparkle is here. Materials: watercolor paper pan watercolors brushes pastels

Materials: paper for background, newspaper, colored paper scraps, glue stick and scissors Background Information: "When I look at a wildlife or nature subject, I don’t see the feathers in the wings, I just count the wings. I see exciting shapes, color combinations, patterns, textures, fascinating behavior and endless possibilities for making interesting pictures. I regard the picture as an ecosystem in which all the elements are interrelated, interdependent, perfectly balanced, without trimming or unutilized parts; and herein lies the lure of painting; in a world of chaos, the picture is one small rectangle in which the artist can create an ordered universe." -Charley Harper Charley Harper (1922-2007) lived in Ohio for most of his adult life, and was acclaimed for his simplified, graphic, and witty images of nature. Many of his beautiful pictures portrayed birds. This lesson contrasts Harper's minimalist art with the more realistic paintings of James Audubon (1785 - 1851), whose life goal was to scientifically document through his paintings the birds of North America. Take a minute to read a little about Audubon before the lesson (here's a link to the wikipedia page on him). His life was super interesting, and worthwhile summarizing for the kids. After giving the kids a little information about Harper and Audubon, show them the slide presentation (here's the link) and ask some open ended questions, like: -compare the styles of the two artists: how are they similar? How are they different? (For lower grades, comparing these two styles is a great way to teach the concept of abstract vs. realistic art.) -Look also at the backgrounds. How do the details in background, or the artist's decision to leave them out, affect the feel of a picture? -Audubon was painting in a time before cameras. How do you think that affected the way he wanted to paint his pictures of birds? -another idea to make it even more fun - when Gina did this, she printed out pictures of Harper and Audubon and taped them on the board. She had the kids match pictures she printed out of various paintings to the artist who did them. Fun! Then take a minute to break down how to draw a really simple bird for the kids. I drew something along these lines on the board: The project: Make a bird collage inspired by Charley Harper. Inspired by elementary school works from Mrs. Knight's Smartest Artists blog Because our time was short (I only had 40 minutes to do this lesson), we left the background of our papers white and I actually really like the simplicity of the finished pictures. Very Harper-esque if you ask me. If you have more time, it could look amazing to have the kids do watercolor washes and collage on that, but you'd have to figure out how to get the papers dry enough for the glue sticks to work. (Maybe paint before the slideshow? I'm not sure if that would give you enough time...Let me know, anyone, if you try it this way). Anyway: the first thing is to have the kids make their branches by tearing strips of newspaper and gluing them down. Remind the kids that branches come in all different shapes and sizes so they don't get too stressed about having their pictures look a certain way. Have them play around with branch placement. If some kids want to make nests instead of branches, great. After the branches are glued down, they can start working on cutting their bird shapes out of the colored paper scraps and gluing them down, referencing the idea of breaking down the form of a bird into simple shapes like ovals, circles, triangles and rectangles. Possibilities to introduce to the kids could include using different colors of paper for layers, adding in background elements like clouds and sun, and thinking about different bird poses (this one is flying away. I love it!)

I found this idea on fine lines' blog, and it was really fun (albeit quite messy - bring wipes!) in both first grade and fifth grade. Materials: watercolor paper sharpies red tempera (or acrylic, if you have it) paint pan watercolors brushes paper cups for red paint and water paper plates for tracing Cezanne background - Cezanne is considered by many, including Picasso, to be the true father of modern art. On the Metropolitan Museum of Art website there is an amazing, really fun interactive piece on Cezanne and his apples. If you have a smartphone or ipad, I'd recommend bringing the site up on that, and using the ladybug to project it to the kids, using that to guide your discussion (there might be a way to connect your device with a cord, but you can just actually stick your device under the ladybug, turn on the ladybug, and line it up to project the screen, without any cords). Take a minute or two to check it out the Met site here. Here is the slideshow I used to discuss his work with the kids (although I wish I'd used the Met one instead!). We discussed the paintings using the questions: "What do you see?" "What more can you find?" and "Why?" Some of the things we specifically discussed were how Cezanne's apples are not all plain red, but have lots of different colors and reflections and even shapes. We also discussed shadows. Look at the paintings and notice with the kids how Cezanne represents the shadows of the apples. At the end of the slideshow, there is a photograph of apples on a plate. This is what we painted, for our still life. How: For younger kids, have them use the paper plate to trace a circle on the paper with the sharpie. (Older kids can just draw a large circle). Then, using the thick red tempera or acrylic paint, have them paint their apples. You might want to remind them to leave a bit of white in the apple to represent the reflected light. Then, using their pan watercolors, they can do the tablecloth, the plate, etc. Once the red dries a bit some adventurous kids might even want to layer in some other colors onto the apples. Some kids might also want to add shadows.

Gina Colbert did this beautiful Jim Dine-inspired heart project in second grade last week. It would be great for lots of different grade levels! Here's how she did it: Materials: watercolor paper watercolors (pans) & brushes chalk pastels black construction paper scissors glue sticks Set Up: pass out watercolor pans, brushes, and one of each kind of paper to each child. Also, put 1 color of chalk pastel on every childs' desk. (they probably have glue sticks and scissors in their desk but you may want to check with teacher to be sure. you'll need these at the end for the last step). Art History: To give them a little background on pop artist Jim Dine, you can use this powerpoint (made by Cheryl Collins) here. Project: 1. have the kids make any kind of design they want on the watercolor paper using the watercolors. Just make sure they get the whole paper covered with color. 2. while that dries, have them pick up their piece of chalk and draw a square on their black paper. When they finish their square, have them pass the chalk to their neighbor on the right and draw another square with their new piece of chalk. Do this as many times as you need to until the black paper is covered with colorful squares. 3. have kids fold the black paper in half, and then draw half a heart shape. Cut and unfold to reveal the beautiful checkered heart. 4. glue heart on watercolor paper, voila a Jim Dine masterpiece!

*repost* Here are some 'while working' shots that I grabbed because I love these! They are so fun. I got this idea from another teacher in...