Scratch Art Fun in Grade 1

Posted on April 20, 2009 by artlessonsforkids

Ny'a's Horse

Scratch art is one of those lesson kids of all ages LOVE to do and although it’s very easy for us teachers to buy the ready made scratch art paper, I much prefer my students to learn from ‘scratch’ how to make make their own.

I gave out 9×12 white paper and crayons and told the kids they had to fill the whole paper with different colors and designs. I reminded them that for their paper to be ‘magic’ they needed to color in heavily and the only color they couldn’t use was BLACK! It’s amazing what happens when you use the word ‘magic‘. The kids get excited with anticipation and are just transported to their own creative space.

The finished designs were gorgeous and if I had been doing a lesson on lines and design this would have been just great. Next I gave out black crayons and told the the kids to cover their entire paper with black by coloring very heavily and trying to make sure no colors could be seen. They couldn’t believe they were covering up their designs! (Note: I used black india paint with a previous class and it was very hard for them to scratch out a picture so I think a black crayon works better and the effect is stunning.)

Next, I gave out scratching tools like some wooden stylus’ and explained that this tool would help them draw and color anything on their paper while they were ‘scratching’ out their design. I even made them blow on the tip of the tool for special effect.

The ‘ooohs’ and ‘aaahs’ are immediate as soon as they start to ‘draw’ and the vibrant colors start to appear magically before their eyes –this is priceless!

This lesson can be adapted to any age level so give it a go and forget about buying the ready made paper. This is more exciting and creative by far. Try to display them against a sunny window because the colors look shiny and they look gorgeous too!

Sebey's Scarab Beetle

Yasmin's Butterfly

Anisa's Penguin

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Cave Art Comes Alive!

Posted on March 15, 2009 by artlessonsforkids

There are certain units in art class that take on a life of their own and just GROW! My Cave art unit turned out even better than I had anticipated and grew into a Pre-K – Grade 5 theme due to the … Continue reading →

Torn Paper Lines

Posted on February 15, 2009 by artlessonsforkids

Here is a neat idea you can do the next time you need to teach LINES. Get your students to ‘feel‘ the lines by tearing out all sorts of lines using only their fingers and imagination!
For this lesson, I like to give out 2 colored papers either to individual students or to pairs. In today’s lesson I gave out white and black paper because the contrast is quite dramatic but you can use any color combination such as a warm and cool color, complimentary colors, different shades, etc. Tell your students one color is for tearing lines out and the other is for glueing the lines on.
My grade three class worked in pairs. We discussed and reviewed the different kinds of lines and how to tear paper and give it the shape we want. Teach your students to gently make little tears and to use their thumb as a guide and ‘ruler‘. The students got into pairs and talked about which lines they wanted to tear. They placed the torn lines on the paper and decided on a nice composition. Here your students can place lines symmetrically or make a picture depending on the grade level. We went for a symmetrical composition because they were learning about this in math.

tearing lines

playing around with the lines for composition

Once the teams were happy with their lines the next step was to glue them down on the paper. They then were given the same colored paper and had to make the same or another design using the opposite color. If the students started with tearing white paper on black then they would do tearing black lines on white paper.
This lesson can be adapted to many grade levels and the result is quite lovely.

pasting1

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