Dia De Los Muertos

The second graders have been working on this project for quite a while. I did not anticipate it taking so long, but due to holidays and scheduling, we are just winding down with it. Dia De los Muertos is celebrated on November 1st and 2nd so it was timely that we were still working on them. I introduced the project with a prezi, which is my new favorite thing ever. You can view mine here and feel free to use it if you ever do this project. The kids loved the whole thing and they were so excited to make their own Calaveras.

We began by looking at lots of pictures and I had the students draw their designs on white drawing paper , then out line in sharpie and then color in with oil pastels.

Then they cut out the pieces and glued them to black paper. I gave them some fancy sequins for embellishment and some of the classes got to use GLITTER. Hooray for glitter, it brings squeals of delight to my kids, not so much delight to the custodians.

Overall, I feel it was really successful, the children were really interested in the story behind the celebration and they loved looking at the pictures of the altars and the parades and of course the sugar skulls.

The Princess and the Pea

So the second graders were doing a unit on fairy tales and I wanted to do an interdisciplinary project based on one of them. I chose "The Princess and the Pea". We read a version of the story and the students got to work. Prior to the project, I collected a ton of old wallpaper books which came in handy for this. The students used strips of wallpaper as the mattresses, we all decided to hide a 'pea' somewhere in the stack of mattresses, I had them draw it, but next time, I might just use a hole puncher and some green paper and have them use that. They loved that part. Once they had their stack of mattresses, they used long strips of brown paper to create the bedposts. I gave them a little rectangle of paper for them to create their Prince or Princess and I used metallic gold paper for a crown.

First Grade Bats

This was a really fun project that the kids enjoyed!!! I got the idea from the blog, Art Projects for Kids (click here for link). Make sure you put lots and lots of newspaper underneath when they use the sharpies! I ordered 12 cup coffee filters from amazon, they were not as large as I would have liked them but I could not find the bigger ones. I bet if you went to a restaurant supply store you might have better luck but you would probably own more coffee filters than you could ever use in a lifetime.

Coloring in the bats with sharpie.

There's those liquid watercolors again!

I am having them glue them onto a black piece of paper and we are making glue dots and glitter to create stars. I also had them make a little book of bat facts to go along with it. I also showed them a short video about Bats.

First Grade Leaf Collages

I love to do this project with the first graders. Its great for fine motor skills and I think the results are always spectacular.

The students use a mixture of water and glue to paste down the tissue squares. I also use oaktag with a leaf traced on it, the paper needs to be thick enough to deal with the giant puddles of glue water that they will inevitably paint on.

 The gluing takes one art class. When the students return to me for the next session, they cut out the leaf and glue it on to a square of paper. Then we discuss borders, and patterns and they use cut paper squares in a variety of colors for the border. They can do a pattern if they like but its not mandatory.

 I also let them use a sharpie to add the veins to the leaf. I try to throw in a little science lesson and compare the veins in our bodies to the veins in the leaf.

First Grade Leaves: Hot and Cold Colors

The first grade students are still working on some fall themed projects. I really love my Dick Blick liquid water colors. Say that five times fast. I often wonder if Dick Blick should not have just gone with Richard Blick. At any rate, the colors are just so vibrant and the kids just love them. They always give the best results!

I had the students draw some leaves on watercolor paper. I used tracers. I have a love/hate relationship with them and I would never not encourage a student to just draw their own, but this project was not really about drawing so I provided the tracers.

tracing the leaves

After they traced, I gave them some black paint mixed with Elmers glue. I had ordered these little bottles, which were definitely easier for their small hands to use, but you could also save old Elmers bottles for older kids.

This is not really an easy skill for a first grader, but I figured it was worth a shot. They really loved it though and thought it was the best thing ever. Some of them had a hard time with how much pressure to put on the bottle, but honestly I feel like it was a beneficial fine motor activity for them. A lot of the students I teach do not have access to a lot of art materials and don't really get to experiment with different things, so I feel like the more exposure I give them, the better it is. The process is valuable, which to me is the key to a great art project.

So this part took up the first art period. When they came back to see me, we discussed warm and cool colors. I had them just paint the warm colors in the leaves. If I had given them all the paint colors, they might have just painted all their leaves blue and purple  or just mixed all the colors in to make that lovely olivey tinged pukey brown color. So, in an effort to get them to understand warm colors, I only gave them warm colors. The next art session, they got the cool colors for the background.

Adding the cool colors after painting the leaves

I think that they all came out beautiful, they worked really hard and they all enjoyed themselves. I cannot wait to display them.

Monsters Don't Eat Broccoli

The second graders read the story, "Monsters Don't Eat Broccoli" by Barbara Jean Hicks. That was the starting point for their mixed media collages. We talked about how monsters could look, what kind of characteristics to add, etc. I had them start out drawing in pencil on white card stock. They then added texture and details using crayons, but not too much as the next week they used water color paints on them.

After they painted their creatures, they cut them out and then began to build the city. They were giving rectangles of different sizes and black and white crayons. They also had scissors and could choose to change the shapes of the buildings if they chose to. We discussed skylines and how to make different types of windows to add visual interest to the skyline. When they finished that, they glued their monsters in place.

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I am so proud of all the work my first and second graders create and there never seems to be enough time to display all the work in a timely manner. So, I am channeling my inner Bob Dylan and going electric.

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