Christmas Barn Scenes

I wanted a new Christmas art project for the bulletin board so this is what I came up with.

Grade 1 completed them today.













MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- white heavier paper for painting background, you also can cheat and just use light blue construction paper
- white sketch paper
- light blue, white, red, and green liquid tempera or acrylic paint
- corrugated cardboard
- white and black oil pastel
- black paper scraps
- white paper strips, I ran mine thru the paper shredder
- white glue
- gold and silver sequins
- red buttons
- golden/or silver stars

PROCEDURE:

Tape down your heavy painting paper.

If you are using light blue construction paper you can skip this step.

Paint light blue.

Paint some sketch paper red. This is for the barn.

Paint some paper green, this for the wreath and Christmas tree.

After the blue paint has dried take a white oil pastel.  Draw out your snow slopes and your trees.

This will be a guide for when we add our white paint.



You want trees on either side and space in middle for your barn.

For the far snow slope I painted with watered down paint.  I used dry brushing and straight paint for the slope in the foreground.


With Grade 1 we just used watery white paint as the dry brush was a bit difficult for them.

Now we are going to add white paint to the trees.

We are going to use a piece of corrugated cardboard, stamping the paint on with the end.

I would do the trunk of the tree first and then the branches.

I made templates for Grade 1 just to get the right size....they all end up looking different which I love.


Cut a barn shape out of the red paper.

With the white paper strips (I put printer paper thru the paper shredder), make the door for your barn.

For grade 1 I had them draw a rectangle in pencil first.

Glue into place.

For the roof, outline it with black pastel and smudge it a bit.

We will add some snow later.

For the wreath I turned over the green paper, I traced the inside of a masking tape to make a circle, this is my guideline.  I then drew a jagged line.  Cut on this jagged line.

To cut the inside, fold it and cut a jagged inner circle.

If you want you can add some texture to your wreath by adding flecks of different green pencil crayons.

Glue the wreath into place. With scraps of black paper cut a couple of windows. Glue into place.

Decorate the wreath.  I used sequins and some stars I punched from silver and gold wrapping paper.

I had some extra trees I punched for another project but you could cut a tree from the green painted paper.

I outlined and smudged with black pastel.  We did not have time for this  with Grade 1.

Add a little snow using the cardboard technique again.



You can then glue into place in the foreground and decorate it with sequins, red buttons and stars.

Add some snow to the roof.

We then smudged a little pastel in front of the barn
like the animals or tractor had trudged thru the snow,

Great work Grade 1.

See you next time.


Gail

Valentine Snowman

This is a cute Valentine project for your bulletin board, art journal or to go home for Mom and Dad.

You can also add text if you want.



















MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- wc paper or heavy painting paper for background
- blue disk tempera
- rubbing alcohol spray or piece of household sponge
- white liquid tempera or acrylic
- white cardstock or poster board
- black, red and orange paper scraps
- glue
- oil pastels
- glitter glue and text, optional

PROCEDURE:

First off I'm having camera issues so bear with the inconsistent photos.

Tape off your background paper.  Using blue disk tempera paint your background.

To give your background texture and make it look like it's snowing try one of these techniques:

- spray on some rubbing alcohol, I just buy it from the dollar store (supervise the kiddos for this one)
- spray some plain water (not quite as effective as alcohol but works)
- sponge on a little white tempera

When background has dried paint some snow on bottom of page.

Out of some white cardstock or poster board cut 3 circles.  I traced around 3 different tapes I had lying around.

Cut out circles.

I want to define my circles a bit so I took a white oil pastel and outlined the circles.  I have kids place it on a scrap piece of paper and colour on the outline so that it is half on the circle and half on the paper.

Repeat with a touch of black.  Just a touch we don't want a muddy snowman.

With your finger smudge that pastel around the outline, you should get a grey smudge.

Glue on your circles, overlapping them.

Now add your details.  Cut out a hat from the black paper scraps and glue it on. Use oil pastel to add eyes, mouth and arms.
Add a red paper heart and an orange paper carrot nose.

Finally you can add some glitter glue to the snow and snowman for that extra sparkle.

You can also add some text if you want and that's it.





I think they are adorable!

Gail

Penguin Weaving

I have 2 penguin weaving projects for you.


This easy paper weaving.

and this yarn woven penguin using a loom.















Paper Woven Penguin:

MATERIALS REQUIRED

- 1 piece of white cardstock (8.5x11), 1 piece of blue cardstock, I piece of black cardstock, and 1 sheet of drawing paper (8.5x11)
- scraps of white paper and orange paper
- white and silver paint
- glitter glue
- crimper, optional
- pencil, white pencil crayon, scissors
- glue
- snowflake punch, optional

PROCEDURE:

First off I want to take my 1 piece of drawing paper and cut it in half the short way.

I want some interesting papers to weave into my penguin so I alter my 2 pieces of drawing paper.

I might paint one with glitter

or spray on some splatter

or stencil on a design with paint

or crimp in some texture with a paper crimper, this one does circles and add a little paint to accent the design.

It really doesn't matter what you do just make the 2 papers look different.
The kids will share papers so there will be lots of variety. 

Some other ideas:
- draw circles with gray crayon
- finger paint with grey and white paint
- sponge on some grey and white paint
- draw lines on with grey and white oil pastel

Fold your piece of white cardstock in half the short way.

Starting at the fold cut several slats in the paper. Stop about 2 inches from the top or open ends.

At school I either get students to draw these lines first with their ruler or I run the paper thru the photocopier putting the lines on for them.

When your painted papers are dry cut in strips the long way.

Start weaving. It should look like a checkerboard.

When my weaving is all done I took my blue piece of cardstock and folded it in half the long way.

I drew a sketch of my penguin, trying to determine how big to make my belly.  This sketch will not show in the final piece as we will use the other side.
Refold your paper and cut out the belly while folded, that way you get a symmetrical opening.

Before I glue my blue paper in place I need to trace my belly onto the black paper.  I missed this step so I used the piece that was cut away but I think it would be easier for your students to just place the blue page on top of the black and trace in the belly.

Glue blue paper into place.

Trim any excess white strips.

I have the penguin belly traced on my black paper so now I draw in the head and the wings.

I fold the black paper the long way and cut out the wings and head.  I don't want the belly so I mark it to remember to cut it off.

I wind up with something like this.  Because I cut on the fold both sides are identical.

Glue into place.  Any pencil lines are on the back of my black paper so I don't see them in the final piece.

Using the black paper that is leftover and some scraps of white and orange I cut and glue on the details of my penguin.

I add a few punched snowflakes.

Now you could draw some on with white crayon or pastel.

That's it for my paper woven penguin.












Yarn Woven Penguin:

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- loom, I have 2 class sets of looms my father in law made for me but you can also just use a piece of corrugated cardboard with slits cut at the top and bottom

- string, you can also just use the white yarn for setting up your loom

- white and black yarn

- plastic fork

- black, white, and yellow or orange felt

- glue

PROCEDURE:

Tie on your string and start stringing your loom.

I used 17 strings but you can choose what works for you as long as it is an odd number.

Take a good length (about 48") of black yarn and tie on to the first string of your loom.

Start weaving, I use a plastic needle to help me weave but you can also just tape the end with masking tape.

Make sure each row is opposite to what you did the row before (under, over)

Weave 25 rows.  Incidentally I use that plastic fork to push my weaving rows together.

Using that same black string I now start weaving on only 3 strings on the closest end.

I think I did about 50 rows double the number I did for the head of the penguin.

Tie off.

Now tie on the other side and do 50 rows on the first 3 strings on that side.

Tie off when done.

Switch to white yarn and tie on string for belly.



Weave 50 rows.

After the 50 rows I continue weaving for another 10 but I include all strings on the loom.




Tie off when done.

Remove strings from loom.  I then tie 2 by 2 of those loom strings into a good knot right close to my penguin weaving, trim excess.

I like to hide my loom strings so I flatten them to the back of my weaving a glue a piece of felt on top of them to secure.

Turn to the front and using felt add details.

You can also add a hanging string.

That's it you now have a yarn woven penguin.




Gail