Lovely ladybugs

1st graders learned about symmetry and insects while creating these beautiful painted ladybugs! 

Bicycles!

I saw an idea for this on one of the art blogs I follow and I'm so glad I tried it with 2nd grade!  We drew the bicycle step by step.  Then added the strips to the bottom and the background details with construction paper crayons.

Puzzle trees

I found this neat idea on Pinterest, of course, where I tend to find a lot of inspiration!  We painted our background during the first class.  Next we created patterns in our landscape, flipped our papers over and drew a tree on the back.  I encouraged them to keep their trees SIMPLE!  3 to 4 branches total.  After cutting the trees out, we put the puzzle back together and glued them down onto black paper so that the negative space now becomes the tree.  They are so unique! 

4th grade abstract sunsets

I know there are a lot of examples on this post, but there were so many great ones, I had a difficult time choosing which ones to post!  I could have posted them all!  They are beautiful.  We drew the abstract sun and waves, then used watercolors for the "warm colors" sunset and "cool color" waves.  Last, we enhanced our paintings with colored pencil by adding simple designs to the waves and thickening our black outlines.

More origami!

It's the time of year when students are beginning to get burned out on school, and teachers are too!  So I try to save my origami specifically for this time of year to keep them interested.  They love doing origami, so I like to include a little of it each year.

5th grade begins a series of origami models that use the same unit fold.  It's neat because when they learn the unit fold, they can make up to three different models!  Two are shown below, the cube and the multiplex challenge, which is the hardest with 12 pieces of paper! 

Making the unit folds....

 LOTS of unit folds!!

 Third grade makes "fox boxes"  They get the name from the unit folds.  Before they are put together, each piece looks like a fox face!

Hawaiian Shirt Origami!

I have lots of Origami lesson plans, but few are really appropriate for younger grades.  These Hawaiian shirts are just the right level for 2nd grade!  They loved making these.  We decorated them with construction paper crayons when we finished the folding.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of the students' finished shirts!  They were too excited to take them home the day we made them!  I just couldn't disappoint! :)

Always sunny in kindergarten!

Well maybe not always, but if I can think of one grade level that is ALWAYS excited to see me, it's without a doubt, KINDERGARTEN!  So that's why I saw always sunny and smiling in kindergarten!  They painted these beautiful sunflowers last week!  So glad the weather is finally warming up around here and we are enjoying our spring and "almost-summer" projects!

3rd grade owls

Third graders have been working on these beautiful owls for the past few weeks.  We drew the owls together, then discussed the color wheel to determine what colors would work well next to each other.  We learned about complementary colors, analogous colors, and how these colors work together.  I think this is one of my favorite third grade projects!

Cherry Blossom trees

Here's hoping for warmer weather!  5th grade is working on these beautiful cherry blossom trees.  We studied cherry blossoms and trees on the activboard and then discussed blending and "not" mixing the paint for their blossoms.  We used pink, red, and lots of white to create the flowers.  I encouraged them to dip a corner of the brush in pink and the other corner in red.  Dab the blossom onto a branch, then dab white on top of that. They have all turned out so beautiful!