Dala Horse Lesson

So very excited to share a new lesson. I feel like I haven't been doing enough folk art with my students and that is something I hope to change this year. So I went in search of something that didn't seem to be overdone and found the delightful Dalecarlian horses of Sweden. I will be having my younger students paint them, but since they missed out on the fun I may have the older students create 3D sculptures. Here's my teacher sample painting and a link to the lesson plan if you'd like to try it but have no time to write your own plan.

In the lesson plan over at TpT, I included two fun pattern worksheets for the students where they have to match up and identify different types of patterns. So excited to see their bright creations filling the hallway this fall!

Warm Days and Cool Nights

Fall is a great time to teach color theory. This year I found a surplus of leaf shaped diffuser paper in a closet and decided to make use of it. We painted the cool colors in our background and used warm colors for the leaves. A forced air (straw painting) tree with black paint completed the unit.

If you'd like to try it (coffee filters work in place of diffuser paper) try my lesson plan. It's available here.

I don't think you're ready for these jellies

First grade rocked their jellyfish paintings.

I had intended for this to be a one day lesson, but after thinking of the various steps and uncovering a Mark Kistler DVD I made some changes. On the first day we talked about watercolor paint, transparency and I demonstrated how to do a wash. They were given the blue liquid watercolors and a mop brush. I had them paint their backgrounds only - which took all of 5 minutes. While the backgrounds dried on their table, I fired up the DVD which had a segment on drawing jellyfish. They got very good at drawing the shape.
For the second week, I demonstrated how to paint the jellyfish, including the forced air tentacles. They used the rest of the time to paint. It's a much better result than if we'd done it all in one class.

Small Pond

Second grade is finishing their Small Small Pond Pictures this week. We had to put them on hold while glazing our snowmen (which I hope to post next week).

Some of my quick finishers today were given the option to add a strip of green around the pond. Lesson plan available here.

Small Small Pond

Second grade is currently reading "In the Small, Small Pond" so I created a lesson plan for them to think about science and nature while creating art. It starts with a discussion about water. What does it look like? How is still water different from moving water. The students have been great in their discussions about what will float and sink. They make predictions about what the water will do and look like.

We're tying this into the impressionists and what artwork could be better than Monet's waterlilies?

Using watersoluble crayons, they've started making the backgrounds for their floating lilypads.

Next week they will choose a lily or a frog to paint, which will sit on their lily pad among the rippling water.

Jellyfish

This summer has already been filled with lots of fun art projects for my favorite 3rd grader. While I was working on a commission for a jellyfish painting she wanted something to do in the studio with me. I taught her how to use a straw to create her own jelly fish. I think this could be a fun lesson on working with line and it should be noted that she worked on this for about 5 hours yesterday and woke up and asked to make more. Her samples and in progress are on the top. My work in progress is underneath. Might write up a lesson plan for this one.