Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

The kindergarten students in Mrs. Brandi's class made these awesome Chicka Chicka Boom Boom pictures.  After I read aloud the book by Bill MartinJr. and John Archambault, the class identified key elements to the illustrations: an orange background, a coconut tree and lots of letters.  From there, we got right to work and began color mixing.  We talked about primary colors and how mixing yellow with red will result in orange.  We put this to the test and used great BIG brush strokes to cover the background of their artwork.

On day two, we had a gluing lesson and began to stick down all the parts of our coconut tree.  We began with the bright purple boarder around the paper which really framed the composition.  Then we  practiced our cutting skills but cutting a brown rectangle into two equal parts to stretch the coconut tree up the paper.  Then we made zig-zag lines along green paper to make the design of the palm leaves.  We also added the coconuts and sun to the picture,  Last, we stamped our letters going up the coconut tree.  What fun!

Fall Birch Trees

This lesson incorporated abstract art and pointillism.  Students looked at images from artist, George Seurat, and discussed his technique of using tiny dots of color to create his paintings.  I asked the students to use a similar technique while making the foreground of their pictures with oil pastels.  After we laid down our masking tape trees, we pulled out fall colors from the boxes of oil pastels.  We used reds, oranges, yellows, browns, and greens, and began making tiny motions to full in the ground with dots as if all the leaves had fallen off the trees.  To get the "smudged" appearance, students used baby oil with q-tips to blend all the colors.

Step #1 - Laying down the tape trees

Step #2 - Adding a pointillism style foreground.
Half of the picture has been "smudged" with baby oil and the other half has not.
Can you tell the difference?

After completing the foreground, students then worked on the sky.  Dramatic skies were the focus, making sure to incorporate more than one color.  We looked at images of dramatic sun sets and stormy skies to help with their ideas.  We used watercolors to paint in the skies and I love how each have a different personality.

Apple Still Life

First grade students embarked on a still life project which began with tempera paint and color mixing.  Students shared how apples come in many different sizes and colors - red, yellow, green and often a combination of two or all three of these colors can appear on an apple.

Each student traced an apple template onto their paper to help make fill the paper.

Next, came the paint!  Students explored using two colors while painting and letting the brush blend the colors right on the paper instead of mixing paint at their tables first.

Day two was all about collage making!  Student set up the background of their artwork by gluing a large rectangle for a table, a piece of burlap for either a sac or basket, and then students were ready for their apples.  Each student then cut out their three apples and placed them on top of the burlap.  We then jazzed them up by adding leaves and stems.  The finished products are delicious!