Last week, 2nd grade started this beautiful and colorful, wintry picture inspired by the blog, Deep Space Sparkle! . This project was originally inspired by the book, Snowballs, by Lois Ehlert. She's an artist, auther, and illustrator, who has written many books! Look her up, when you get a chance! Here's how we created our own! Materials: Oil Pastels Watercolor paint cardboard black tempera paint Construction paper 90lb paper Day 1: I showed them Lois Ehlert's books, and we read her book, Snowballs, and looked at her illustrations. Then, we got to work! We painted our white paper using cardboard and black paint. The students dipped the cardboard into a little bit of black paint, and then quickly drug it on their paper. Then, we divided a separate sheet into different sections, and drew designs in them with oil pastels. After they added designs, they painted over them with watercolors. That was all we had time for in a 45 minute class. Day 2: We cut out our trees, glued them on, and then started creating our birds. I didn't use a template, so each little bird is unique! I did demonstrate how to make an easy one by drawing a big D, or smile shape. We cut them out, glued them on, and added legs, eyes, and branches with a Sharpie. The last step is to add snow with white paint! Here's Mrs. Messmer's class, hard at work! Stay tuned for some awesome art!