1st Grade Newspaper Owl paintings

First grade students just finished forming owls out of clay. While we waited for them to dry out and cycle through the kiln, we read Jane Yolen's book Owl Moon, studied characteristics of owls, and created a 2D project using watercolor resist and newspaper collage.

Class 1: students prepared a background by drawing a full moon, stars, and snowflakes on a piece of 9x12" watercolor paper with white oil pastel. We used dark colors of watercolor paint to fill in the night sky. Students were impressed that the white pastel still shows up after the paint is brushed onto the paper!

Class 2: Using a black crayon, students drew owls on a piece of newspaper (after discussing how the texture of the words reminds us of the stripes on an owl's feathers). We glued our owls to the background, then added yellow eyes, a brown branch and owl feet. We added the textures of feathers and bark to complete our work.

Next week we will glaze our freshly-fired ceramic!

1st Grade Fall Tree

Now that the season is rapidly changing from fall to winter, the first graders' lovely tree is coming down! For the past month, our tree has stood in the front entryway to the school.

Materials:
coffee filters (I used the large size)
washable markers (red, orange, yellow, brown)
black crayon or oil pastels
pre-cut leaf tracers fit to size of coffee filter
Spray bottle with water
scissors
tree branch & base (I used a big bucket filled with bags of clay scraps)

After our study of warm and cold colors, 1st graders each wrote their name on a coffee filter with a black crayon, then colored the opposite side with warm-colored washable markers. We placed newsprint beneath our work while we colored since the ink easily bleeds through the paper. Students were encouraged to fill the circle with as many shapes of color as possible, but if they missed some places, the work turns out beautifully regardless. As they finished, students held up their work to pass through the "mist machine..." otherwise known as Ms. Jabs with a spray bottle of water. Much giggling. I stacked the damp filters together on a tray and let them sit over the week to blend and dry.

The following class period, students traced a leaf shape to their paper (I don't like to use tracing for very many projects, but it can be a difficult skill for the younger students and this is a great short project to gain practice). They cut the leaf out, which was more difficult than you might expect due to the thin paper and complex outline to the leaf shape. When complete, students helped choose a spot on the branches to hang their leaves with masking tape.

1st Grade Warm Suns & Cold Moons

First grade students have been working with the warm and cold color families for the past two sessions. We brainstormed different things these colors reminded us of: the warm colors red, orange and yellow reminded us of things like sunshine, fire, and hot lava. The cold colors blue, green and purple (although purple can technically be either warm or cold, they tell me) reminded us of water, cloudy skies and blueberries.

Each student chose whether to create an artwork with warm or with cold colors; behold some of this year's Warm Suns and Cool Moons!

1st Grade Art Activity: "The Crayon Box that Talked"

All 3 first grade classes have now attended their first Art class at my school! After making introductions, discussing expectations and receiving a "tour" of the Art room, we read Shane DeRolf's book The Crayon Box that Talked. Having a character-education theme, this lesson was a good fit for the day's objectives!

Ahead of time, I prepared 3"x8" white stips of "crayon paper" and pre-cut construction paper "crayons" of various colors. Students practiced writing their name and class code on their crayons, and drew self-portraits. I found it to be a good way to practice names and pre-assess skill levels.

Check out our fantastic "box of crayons!"

First Grade Clay Owls

Fresh out of the kiln today after a glaze firing!

First grade students are finishing up our owl unit. The adventure began with a reading of Jane Yolen's lovely book Owl Moon, followed by slides of various owl species and the formation of a KWL chart (what do we Know, Want to know, and after instruction, what did we Learn) of owl facts.

When the anticipated clay day arrived, students traced basic owl templates into slabs of clay. They practiced the slip-and-score technique for adhering a beak, wings, and eyes to the body of the owl, then embossed textures to their work using assorted clay tools.

Owl Template:

Once the three classes have rotated through, I go through and poke a small nail hole in the top of each project. It warms my heart when students of years past tell me they still have their first grade clay owls displayed at home!

1st Grade Warm Suns & Cool Moons

Okay, these have been finished for a while already. As in... this may in fact have been one of the first projects we did this school year... but they finally made it into the bulletin board rotation about a month ago and I snapped some photos as I took the display down.

I thought that the first graders were especially expressive this year with the faces drawn on celestial bodies! After discussing the difference between warm and cold colors, students chose to portray either warm (sun) or cold (moon). We discussed facial expressions and different kinds of lines that could make our drawings interesting. Pencil drawings were traced in permanent marker then colored with crayon and resist-painted with tempera pucks. The product was well-worth a chuckle of endearment or two; more than one "cyclops moon" was spotted!

Snowmen at Night

Before spring officially arrives... here are the first grade snowmen!

The first graders and I both enjoy this project immensely. After repeating this lesson six years in a row, I still chuckle as I unload the drying rack the next day...

In class, we read Caralyn & Mark Buehner's book Snowmen at Night. What would YOUR snowman do if he came to life at night? Over the years, I have seen snowman pirates, artists, clowns, surfers, saxophone players, princesses, vikings, and even the sheriff.

After drawing our ideas with oil pastel and adding a horizon line, we learn to mix bright, exciting colors in the sky (we use tempera blocks). We also mix colors with white to create shadows in the snow. C-shaped shadows on the snowmen make them look round.

A few delightful snowpeople from this year:

Leaning Tower of People

Always looking out for project ideas to put an exciting new spin on art concepts, I saw this project at a neighboring district last year and had to try it.

Be warned: this is more difficult than it looks. However, it all turned out well in the end. The 1st grade students are very excited to share their Primary Color Pillar at Youth Art Month. The teamwork it takes for our "people" to hold up the tower is symbolic of the teamwork it took for the first graders to contribute to its construction!

Day One: students rolled, scrunched, and taped bits of newspaper to create an armature for their sculptures.

Day Two: students dipped pieces of paper toweling into paper mache and smoothed them to the surface of their armatures.

Day Three: each class was divided into thirds, each third representing one primary color with which to paint their sculpture. We used liquid tempera paint. Some of the crevices and uneven surfaces were difficult to cover, so we compared the white empty spots to "cavities" and wiggled our paint brushes like tooth brushes to fill them in.This was probably the messiest art project I have ever attempted in my career as an art teacher. To any who may attempt this project with first graders: if you can afford the time, have your students paint half their sculptures at a time over a period of two classes. If you do it all at once: have a mop, towels, and a good sense of humor on standby!

Note: I used hot glue to attach the figures together. I was very impressed by the paper mache skills of my first graders, but did not test their skill level with hot glue guns!

Joan Miro Constellation Drawings

I try to apply colors like words that shape poems, like notes that shape music. -Joan Miro

Spanish artist Joan Miro painted his Constellation series between 1939-1941 after escaping from France upon the outbreak of WWII. The series of 23 works (including The Morning Star) consists of brightly colored shapes, outlined in black, floating over a softly colored background. Black lines twine through the space, connecting and dissecting shapes as they intersect. As you continue to view the work, hidden images (such as birds or human figures) emerge within the negative spaces.

On Joan Miro day in Art class, excitement runs high as students realize that images are hidden within the constellations. We create a master list of words accompanied by drawings:

• SHAPES Joan Miro uses (ex. circle, star, triangle, lima bean, and everybody's favorite... floating eyeballs)
• LINES Joan Miro draws (spiral, spiky, curvy, short, long, crisscross, etc.)

Using a black permanent marker, students draw shapes and line styles from our list to create their own compositions. Upon completion, they trade their black markers for sets of washable markers, selecting no more than FOUR colors to fill in shapes of their constellations.
The final step is to create a soft background texture using chalk pastels. Every student uses a brown pastel first, holding it on its side and dragging it very softly in long rows across the drawing (don't push down on the pastel! Too much pressure makes it color too darkly!). Two more colors of students' choice are added above the brown layer.