1st grade ladybugs

First grade is finishing up these gorgeous ladybug paintings this week!  We did a few different types of borders, including the checkerboard style but then I decided the dots went with the ladybugs even better!  I love them both designs, however, so I'm posting both!  We created the borders on the first day and drew our ladybugs, using water bottle lids for the spots.  They learned about overlapping, proportion, also about symmetry in nature during the course of this project.

Snowmen in first grade!

1st grade has been learning about perspective while drawing these towering snowmen and snowladies.  Here are a few in progress!

Here is one before coloring or painting.  We drew them together and traced in permanent marker.  Then we colored the buttons, scarf, eyes, nose, and mouth with color sticks.  We are in the process of painting the background.  Can't wait to show the finished ones!

1st grade Santa paintings

A new one this year is first grade's Santa faces.  Another great quick project when I'm running out of days in December.  Things pop up here and there and I miss seeing a class in the rotation, so this one is a great in that they were able to complete it in just one art class. 

The sticky note flags helped to remind them where NOT to paint.  They get a little carried away sometimes! :)

Not so scary scarecrows in 1st grade!

This project covers several of our elements of art and principals of design, including line, shape, color, repetition, balance, and the list goes on!  We can also learn a little about more about drawing the face and use what they've learned previously about drawing self portraits.  These are so cute, every single one of them has so much character!

Painted paper trees

I used some of my 1st graders' artwork for our volunteer gifts in my previous post.  The remaining classes also completed a similar version but instead of using green construction paper for the leaves, we used our painted paper that we created earlier in the year.  I also had a substitute for one group and she is a fantastic one!  I left lesson plans for them to create just the background with paint, and I failed to specify which direction I had originally intended for the paper to be oriented.  So, she did that very first step portrait instead of landscape, and I am so glad she did, because I think I love them even more this way!!

Here are the landscape versions, I was thinking it would be better to have more room for the flowers, but now I love both versions.

We ❤️ our volunteers!

Each year our school hosts a volunteer appreciation tea for the wonderful volunteers that help us throughout the year. This year I was asked to have students create something special for them in art to show them how thankful we are for their time.  The tree and branches are their handprints and we used our painted papers that we made earlier in the year for the flowers. :)

Cosmos!

Finishing up spring projects this week, starting with 1st grade and these larger-than-life flowers!  I found them here and she has shared an awesome tutorial for them!  Although I didn't exactly follow it.  Probably would have been easier!  :)  We discussed Georgia O'Keefe and her beautifully detailed flowers while we worked on this project. I can't wait to decorate the hallways with these!

Snowy owls

As we are wrapping up some of our winter projects this week, I can't help but to wish for some snow to go along with them!  I know they're getting a ton of it in the Northeast this week, so maybe they can share a little with us? :) It doesn't snow often here in the south, but when it does, it's like Christmas all over again!  At least for me it is!  Here are a few of the snowy owl trees 1st grade is finishing this week. I found this one on Pinterest a couple of years ago and I was happy to try them this year!

Had a very shiny nose!

I'm enjoying seeing these reindeer come to life as they're finishing them up!  Each one is different and unique, and has their own personality!

Last few pumpkins and scarecrows!

I have a few pictures that I'm just now getting around to posting from November.  These adorable scarecrows were done by my 1st graders!