Just a few quick pictures of American landscape paintings that the third and fourth graders created. A few summers ago I took a watercolor painting class which was very useful. I used some of the techniques I learned in that class to teach them about how to use the fan brush and sponges to create texture. The kids looked at photographs of landscapes from America and they learned about the Hudson River school of painters.
This 3rd grade lesson was related to the Chinese scroll paintings. I have taught this lovely project for several years and I know I saw a version of it online when I first started teaching it. I did some internet digging and this awesome scroll project from Oodles of Art looks like it might have been where I saw it. The students studied Asia in their classroom and we learned a little about Chinese art through a video: Oriental Art- … Read more…
This art project is an oldie, but a goodie. I’m not sure where I first saw this project. I think maybe one of the other art teachers taught this lesson in one of my previous school districts. I have seen some lovely variations of this project online. Here is a beautiful one from Pixels and Paintbrushes. It looks like we were both working on them at the same time. 🙂 We began by tracing mitten templates on a piece of … Read more…
Clouds. Aren’t they amazing? Two years ago I took a very helpful watercolor painting class. One of our assignments was to paint clouds. Connecting Art with Science I love to make connections with other subjects. This one is perfect for my 5th/6th grade because in Science class they study cloud identification. They come into my class with a broad understanding of clouds which makes my lesson richer. Clouds and Art Resource The Clouds in Art Gallery is amazing. This gallery … Read more…
I love lessons where I can tie in different areas of study, art history and art techniques! This is a project I developed that incorporates study of frogs, Monet and watercolor painting. To start this project, we learn about the artist Claude Monet and his paintings of ponds and lilypads. We read a book about Monet from the Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists series. (This series is awesome for read-alouds in class. I love the picture books about … Read more…
These lovely fall leaves were painted with watercolor by the 1st graders!
5th/6th grade Castle Drawings The 5th and 6th graders have been studying the Medieval time period in their Social Studies class. For this project, the 5th and 6th graders looked at pictures of castles and drew their own castle using pencil and pens. Then, they added watercolor washes to the picture. Some of the students discovered that it looks really nice when the castle is left white.
