March Lion or Lamb Art Project

Well I'm back....had a bit of a mid winter break over Teacher's Convention in Palm Springs.

I'm currently finishing all the Penguin projects with Grade 1 (hope to have some pictures later this week).

Grade 2 has just started this March "Lion or Lamb" project and based on our weather forecast for the next few days here is Calgary I suspect we will have a lot of Lions on that bulletin board!

For this project the kids are creating the papers to make their Lion"s mane or shaggy Lamb coat.

Painting in the style of Ted Harrison

There is a lot of Ted Harrison love at the school these days.  Both Grades 2 and 3 are completing art projects based on his work.

Ted Harrison is a well known Canadian artist famous for his use of line and color in his landscape paintings around his beloved Yukon home.

This is an easy art project based on his work.

Valentine Suncatchers

Here is a quick Valentine project.  In December, Cassi over at the Crafty Crow posted a Poinsettia Project as part of her Advent series that I just loved.

Using the same technique you can make these Valentine Suncatchers.

If you have any leftover hearts you may also want to check out these necklaces over at filth wizardry.....also amazing.  I saw her hearts after I had already created mine...great minds think alike!

Valentine Inchies: Classroom Results

A few posts back I presented a Valentine Inchie idea and I wanted to show the results with Grade 2......Click on picture to see larger.

I know, I know there is a space but it's that last kid who has been away and just finished hers, we are letting it dry and then the board will be full!

Using the Grid

So now that you have given color cells a try the next step is to create a painting using the cell/grid method.  Kids are always amazed at the results they can achieve using the grid.  For this exercise we will be using a black and white photo.



Here is one I did today and if you look closely (click on photo to see larger) you can see my grid lines.

Using Color Cells - In the style of Chuck Close

I was thinking about creating some good projects to teach VALUE....Value is the lightness or darkness of a color.

For most paintings it is usually the one element that can make or break a composition....shadows and highlights are on this value scale.

If you have a painting that just isn't working you might want to test for value...you can do this by making a Value finder as I describe here or taking a black and white photo of your painting to show your values.

In the art world Chuck Close is an contemporary American painter famous for his large black and white paintings of faces....he often uses a color cell technique or color grid.  I find his more abstract work extremely compelling......and this is a good place to start with young kids.(grades 1-3)

For older students you can use the color grid technique and produce more recognizable portraits.



In this project we are limiting our palette and just focusing on value.  You can focus on a single color or just a warm or cool color combination.

Valentine Inchies

Here is a Valentine project that can be done 2 ways..... the kids can each make up their own collection of "inchies" or each child makes a class set of one type of "inchie" and then the kids do an exchange.

They are kinda of like miniature valentines that the kids can share.

Polar Bears Revisited

Last year I did a post on my Polar Bears but did not have many pictures of it's adaptation for the classroom. 

I completed this year's Polar Bears with Grade 1 last week and presented it as part of this weekend's workshop with Calgary teachers so I thought I would update this post for all of you out there in blogland!

Glue Stamped Papers

When putting together an art project my first priority is to get the kids to make as many of the materials as I can.

Now I'll admit it's easy to walk into a scrap booking or art supply store and fall in love with all the different papers....but it's so much more fun to make you own (cheaper too)!

Whenever I give one of my presentations I always talk about building a paper stash.  What I mean by this is as you work on a project make a few extra papers...they always come in handy. Store them by color and pull them out when you need a quick cut and paste project.  Because the papers are handmade the project will look incredible and the kids will remember all the techniques they used to create them.

"Postcard from Paris" Valentine

I've been putting together a few projects for St. Valentine's Day and this is one of them. A vintage looking photograph/ postcard idea. To make this postcard you need: