2nd grade Pumpkin Farms

I changed this project slightly this year by allowing students to color their hillsides and pretty much everything except their pumpkins unrealistically!  I love the colorful results!  Their pumpkins had to be orange, but other than that, anything was fine.  We drew these together and colored them with our favorite crayola color sticks!

5th grade Value pumpkins

My 5th graders are finishing up these beautiful pumpkins this week.  This lesson was fantastic for teaching value with paint.  Sometimes I feel it's a little overwhelming to learn value not only in color, but particularly in paint!  This project allowed us to break it down into one small section at a time.  We used three shades to add value to each pumpkin.  For example, on the green pumpkin, we used yellow, green, and brown.  Brown was for the shadows and yellow for the highlights.  I could have also used white, but I didn't want to give them too many colors and overwhelm them!  They are turning out great!

1st grade ladybugs Art By Me project

First grade just finished up their ladybugs for Art By Me.  It's taken us a little longer to finish this year with all the special extra things going on in my schools.  Some classes have had field trips and we've also had music programs they've needed to practice for so we're finally getting things finished up for the fundraiser this year.  Art By Me money is used to purchase supplies for art that I may not normally be able to afford with my normal budget.  One of the things like to purchase is Crayola Color sticks.   They're so much easier to use than crayons or colored pencils and the vibrance of the colors is just fantastic.  We used them for our haunted house project that I posted earlier this week.  Here's the link in case you missed them:

http://criscoart.blogspot.com/2014/10/happy-haunts-in-4th-grade.html

Enjoy a few pics of these sweet ladybugs!

Happy Haunts in 4th grade

This project has always been one of my favorites!  We draw the whimsical houses step by step, and students loved the fact that their houses did not have to be perfectly straight! 

Art classes for adults too!

This past Saturday I had the pleasure of teaching some fantastic new "students!"  I set up a temporary studio, complete with stools, easels, and plenty of extra lighting.

Please excuse the baby, he was helping us set up that day! ;)

We also added a touch of decor here and there to make it feel artsy...

...and once the "students" arrived we dove right into painting!  

I had to take a picture of the beautiful purple shade of our water jars before they turned into yucky mud. :)

Putting in the background with purple...

I missed taking pictures of a few of the steps, but after the background we painted the pumpkin using a blend of orange, yellow, and red, then added our swirls in red while it was still wet. 

While our pumpkin dried, we created a not-so-perfect (on purpose!) pattern of black and white lines along the bottom...

Then topped it off with a whimsical stem and stitching details!  They all turned out so unique and beautiful!!

I hope to post more pictures from future classes as well!

4th grade chameleons

4th grade is finishing up these fantastic chameleons this week!  We drew our chameleons by picking out the basic shapes, such as a triangle for the head.  Then we discussed their environment and the different types and textures of foliage we could include.  I gave them color wheels and briefly discussed patterns before turning them loose with paint! 

3rd grade owls for Art By Me

This is one of my favorite projects!  They always turn out beautiful!  Here are a few from this year.

Glorious paint!

Have I mentioned lately how much I love paint?  Well, I do... I love the smell (the non-toxic varieties, mind you!), the way it looks freshly squeezed from a bottle or tube, untouched and unalternated by brushes... the richness of the color and thickness with which it coats the bristles of my favorite brushes.... It is the most perfect medium to me, in any form, whether it be oil, acrylic, or tempera. The vibrance it brings to every piece of art that my students create is just magical!  I know... I may be slightly, or not so slightly, crazy... But I don't mind being a bit crazy about paint. 

   This is interesting because I was once afraid of it.  Especially in my art room.  No wait- I was terrified by it, the thought of the MESS and the NOISE associated with excitement over using paint overwhelmed me to the point that I avoided it as much as possible in my first few years of teaching!  We still used it, but only when necessary!  Once I realized how life-altering paint could be, (a bit too strong of a description for paint? Nah!) I began to use it more and more frequently, until painting is now a weekly event!  Oh... but what about all that noise and mess it was supposed to cause?  Surprisingly, the kids are quietest when they paint.  Some days you can almost hear a pin drop.  I love it, because I know they're engaged and enjoying what they're doing.

   So, to any new teachers who may be in fear the of this messy medium... You don't want to miss the wonderful things that paint can bring to your art room.  I promise it's forgiving, and even if it's not, messes can always be cleaned up, and nothing compares to the joy on a child's face when they find out it's "PAINT DAY!!!" in the art room!  

Colorful Chameleons

We are finally making enough progress on our first projects so that I can post pictures!  4th grade is working on these beautiful chameleons for their Art By Me fundraiser project.  We still have a few more steps to complete and then I'll post finished pictures.  We discussed the color wheel and patterns before they chose their chameleon colors.  We will paint the background next week!