Textured Animals in Grade One

Posted on February 13, 2011 by artlessonsforkids

Next time you talk about lines and texture with your students, why not try this fun lesson that everyone will enjoy! I found this idea over at the Dick Blick Art site where they have a great selection of lesson plans for each grade level. I changed it a bit so click here if you would like to see the original lesson.

We started by talking about lines and the different lines around us in the environment. We went on a line hunt around the school and the students recorded all the lines they could see on some paper.

Back in the classroom, after a brief discussion about all the lines we saw, we then went on to brainstorm some favorite animals. Each child received a 12×18 piece of paper and drew an outline of their favorite animal or insect making sure they used up most of the paper space. I gave out thin markers and they each divided sections inside their animals and filled them up with all sorts of creative lines.

With the two oil pastel colors…gorgeous!

Next, the animals were outlined heavily with oil pastels in two colors just to make them stand out.

The final and exciting step was to paint the backgrounds with some wonderful metallic colored acrylic paints. The kids loved this part and it made the lines and texture on their beautiful animals and insects look amazing! 🙂

Wonderful, don’t you think?

Psst…

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Try This Great Drawing Tool!

Posted on February 3, 2011 by artlessonsforkids

I have been having so much fun using this online drawing tool (http://mrdoob.com/projects/harmony/#web) I just had to share it with you. Very simple to use, you can change colors, use a variety of very cool drawing effects and the best part… you can save all of your artwork forever and ever. I LOVE it and I’m sure your kids will too! I have already shared this link with my students and will be dedicating some art lessons very soon to explore this tool further while we create some interesting artwork.

Do you know of any other exciting web tools we could all be playing with? 🙂

Here is the quick drawing I made inspired by my recent visit to the Tree of Life.

Cute huh? Now go have some fun!

Tree of Life, Ms. Alejandra

Psst…

Oil and Chalk Pastel Art in Grade Four

Posted on January 25, 2011 by artlessonsforkids

Check out these gorgeous Van Gogh inspired sunflower pots grade four drew recently. After looking at Van Gogh’s sunflower paintings, the kids were eager to create their own. I encouraged my students to add different flowers to their pots in addition to sunflowers and to color in their art work with cool and warm colors since this is what we were talking about in the first place. The flowers, part of the pot and the table were colored in with oil pastels and the rest with chalk. My kiddos are huge fans of Vincent and I am a huge fan of their art work! 🙂