Winter Mittens!

Pairs of mittens!

These mittens have taken over my desk and school but they are adorable so I guess that's what matters. 

I have done this project before another way.  The media can be adapted a ton of ways. 

This year the first part of the project was a practice in careful watercolor painting.  

First the kids drew a few lines with white crayon (for  a little "magic" resist effect with the paint.)

The students painted wavy lines carefully across the paper ... 

without mixing colors or using black or brown. 

They all came out really nice.  I did another watercolor project the following week and the kids really applied their "careful painting" techniques!

During the next class the students did crayon texture rubbings on the back and cut out mittens.  I stapled yarn to them so they would be attached.  They are now hanging all around the school!

Super Hero Figure Drawing

My fourth graders have recently reviewed portrait drawing with me.  I decided to review figure drawing as well.  I really try to encourage the students to investigate how the body works to create movements- how joints create the bends but bones can't bend.  To practice figure drawing I have them start by drawing a rectangle for the middle of the body and then attach circles for the joints and rectangles for the arm and leg bones.  This gets them to stop worrying about details and stay focused on the placement, alignment, and proportions of the body in different positions.  

This figure drawing practice was followed by a "design your own superhero" project.  The students had to create their character in a superhero pose and carefully draw and color both sides.  As a special surprise I hot glued capes to the figures with the students first initials on the back.  They look great in the case!

Cat and Mouse in the Snow

This lesson goes along with the cute winter story:

Cat and Mouse in the Snow by Tomek Bagacki

I read the story to my Kindergarten and First Grade classes. 

I then went over attributes of cat and mouse faces with the students. 

On grey construction paper the students drew a cat and mouse with pencil.  They could also add on a hat and scarf if they wanted.  The goal was to introduce them to zooming in or cropping a subject in their composition.  

They traced with a turquoise construction paper crayon.  Then they added snowflakes on with a white crayon.  This was especially cute when they drew a snowflake on the animal's nose or falling on to their face.  

During the next class we painted with watercolor. 

Fun Stand Up Buildings... for the little ones

Last but not least I thought I would add on one more architecture variation.
This was introduced the same as Crazy Architecture but was also a twist on Stand-Up City Bags.
I did this project with first graders at a museum class and they did a great job!

 This was my original sample for this lesson:

Architecture continued...

This was another version of the Crazy Architecture project.  In this variation we created the buildings out of paper cuts shapes and added details with metallic markers.  

We also created rotation symmetry designs influenced by stained glass rose windows on small pieces of metal.  The students used a circle for the start of this project.  They could cut them into a circle, cut them up, or keep them square.