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Tag Archives: second grade

Tape and Paint Pictures

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Tape and Paint Pictures

I came up with this lesson after browsing the internet looking for contemporary artists to study.  I came across Fiona Curran’s‘s beautiful paintings with straight lines and geometric shapes.  Here are some of her artworks: At the end of the year, my students were losing focus and were ready for summer to begin!  I wanted a fun lesson that would involve experimentation and play.  I love using colored and patterned tape so I showed the second grade students how you … Read more… →

Paper Hats with 2nd Graders

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Making Paper Hats with 2nd graders

This is just a quick post to share with you a simple and fun project for the end of the year.. paper hats!  The kids started with a long strip of construction paper, drew designs on their hats with construction paper crayons, punched out shapes and added fun paper extensions from the scrap box.  The strip was placed around their head and stapled by me. We got more use out of our paper sculpture techniques poster (below).  Easy.  Fun.  Practice … Read more… →

Making Talking Sticks with Kids

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Making talking sticks by painting and decorating branches.

Earlier this year, one of the second grade teachers approached me about an idea for an art/social studies collaboration.  She had read a story to the children about a tribe which used talking sticks. She thought the students would be interested in making their own special talking sticks.  This could be a great project to accompany character education on taking turns and listening. Talking sticks have been used in native tribes of the Northwest Coast (North America) and in Western … Read more… →

Paper Masks and Paper Sculpture Techniques

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Paper Sculpture Techniques Poster

These lovely paper masks were made by my second graders.  The students learned different paper manipulation techniques including controlled tearing, punching paper with Fiskars squeeze punchers, cutting with paper edgers , crimping paper with a paper crimper, making forms, cutting spirals, folding zigzags and more. I created a poster with paper manipulation techniques using ideas that I had seen on other sculpture posters, like this one.   I should have made a poster like this years ago.  I have referred students … Read more… →

Pop Art Portraits: 2nd Grade

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2nd Grade children's colorful and abstract self-portraits inspired by Pop Art, displayed on a board in grid layout.

Hi there!  I have a bunch of old projects I want to post about and I will just post them with short descriptions. This lesson is a popular one for teaching about Pop Art and Andy Warhol. We read the book Andy Warhol (Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists). The students drew a self-portrait by looking at themselves in a mirror, outlined them in black pen and then I photocopied the pictures four times. The students colored their portraits … Read more… →

Drawing Maps for Figurines with 2nd Graders

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Toy animal figurines, brown houses, and a colorful building are displayed on a map drawn by 2nd graders, featuring blue waterways and green spaces.

I came up with this idea from my daughter’s obsession with playing with her figurines and maps.  She has a few of these map sets that come with a large fold-out map, a book and a bunch of related figurines (they have these at Barnes & Noble). This project taps into children’s natural interest in miniature toys! I showed the 2nd graders this map with some figures (many of them had similar maps at home) and told them to bring … Read more… →

Concentric Patterned Hearts: 2nd Grade

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Concentric Patterned Hearts: 2nd Grade

Concentric means that the shapes share the same center and are placed inside one another. Patterns are arrangements of repeated parts Creating concentric patterned hearts are a great way to explore creativity, pattern making, size and shape.  We made these in 2nd grade around Valentine’s Day, but this would also be a nice idea for a Mother’s Day card or picture.  The children could write or draw about their moms in the spaces around the hearts.

Have You Ever Drawn Flowers with Watercolor Pencils?

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Have You Ever Drawn Flowers with Watercolor Pencils?

The week after winter break was up in the air.  Due to construction, we weren’t sure if we were going to be able to use our art room and we didn’t know if we would have easy access to supplies.  I planned for most of my classes to complete observational drawings during that week period, since they all could use the same supplies and learning to observe the edges and shapes of objects is great training for the eye. It … Read more… →

Mixed Media Masks for 2nd Grade

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Mixed Media Masks for 2nd Grade

How many of you have also been off of school Monday and Tuesday this week?  This is our 4th day off of school because of cold weather.  It is supposed to be -45 windchills tomorrow morning, so we already know school is cancelled. I love making masks with kids! My second grade students learn about Alaska in their Social Studies class, so I introduce Alaskan masks to the kids.  We actually watch clips from a video series to teach about … Read more… →

15 Favorite Posts from 2013

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  Another year is rapidly coming to a close, so I thought I would spend some time reviewing my favorite projects and blog posts from this year.  Here are my favorite posts, in no particular order! 15.  How to Paint Gorgeous Clouds with Watercolor 14.  Clay Castles 13.  Postage Stamp Art Project 12.  Heart Photography Project with 3rd Grade 11.  25 Amazing Books for Teaching About Art 10.  Editorial cartoons are a unit I teach every year.  We even were … Read more… →

Winter Pop-up Scene Art Project for 2nd Grade

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Winter Pop-up Scene Art Project for 2nd Grade

Aren’t these fantastic?  I love these pop-up winter scenes. Guess what?  I just made a companion Facebook page for my blog!  I thought it would be fun to have another avenue to easily share all kinds of artsy inspiration I come across.  Most of the Facebook updates will be links to other blogs, articles and interesting artistic things I find around the web.  Of course, I will also share things about my blog, but MOST of the posts will be … Read more… →

Lego Art Projects

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Lego Art Projects

Our school is building an addition, so I thought projects related to “building” would be fun.  Legos are the perfect building blocks! So, we designed our own mini-figures with this template.  I originally saw this idea from The Art Teacher’s Closet. We also stamped with Legos (idea via Lego Stamping from Filth Wizardry).  Thanks to wonderful bloggers for these two ideas!  My students LOVED them!  They were so excited about these proejcts. Place your piece of paper on top of … Read more… →

2nd Grade Oil Pastel Landscapes

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A child's drawing featuring a river, mountains, palm trees, a small house, and a pond under a blue sky. This delightful landscape appears to be made using oil pastels by a 2nd grader.

This oil pastel drawing project is inspired by the artwork of Paul Gauguin, in particular his painting Tahitian Landscape. To build up a little enthusiasm, when the kids arrived to class there was an envelope at their seat.  I told them to open the envelope and see what was inside.  I had printed off pictures of Tahitian Landscape, laminated them and then cut them into puzzle pieces.  The kids worked quickly to put together the puzzles.  Then, I introduced the … Read more… →

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