Tranquil Landscapes - Watercolor - 4th Grade

 

 

Peaceful...  Calm...  Tranquil...  That's how each and every one of these watercolor landscapes appear.  Fourth grade is finishing up their icy landscapes.  I was inspired by these beautiful pieces from Arteascuola and Color, Collage and Much More.  

We started the first class by creating the backgrounds.  The students used liquid watercolor and salt to get their gorgeous skies!  I had the kids paint them about 3/4's of the way down the paper since we were going to be covering some of it.  We used blues and purples and black.

 

I then had them paint a piece with only green, blue and black.  The students created a watercolor wash for this section that would be cut into the mountains, glaciers or some said they looked like a forest of pines. 

 

For the ice, I demonstrated how to use plastic wrap to create this very cool, crackled look.

 

I had never done this technique with my students so I played around with before instructing them how to do it.  We used the liquid watercolors in blues and purples (the green is only in this example for all of you).  I told them they must work quickly because if the paint dries or absorbs into the paper this technique will not be very effective. 

 

I ripped off enough pieces of plastic wrap ahead of time and had it on their tables and ready so they could use it as soon as they were ready.  As soon as they laid the plastic wrap on I had them scrunch it around for a few seconds.  I stressed that they were not to take the wrap off!  Some still did and had to re-start! 

 

As soon as the pieces began to dry the plastic wrap fell away from the paper. I saved them and had other classes re-use them.

The final item was to choose an animal, sketch it and add it to their landscape.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can you tell that penguins were popular?! 

There were also polar bears, caribou and white seals.  

I love how the pieces turned out!

I am grading them quickly as the kids are dying to take them home!

Have a great weekend and look out for those Leprechauns on Sunday! 

Mrs.C  :)

Outer Space 1 Pt Perspective - 3d Grade

 

A couple of my 3rd grades finished their One Point Perspective pictures on Thursday.  After playing around with how to finish them up I decided that I would have them do some Salt Water Color for their outer space backgrounds.  I introduced the students to this technique in 2nd grade and they were thrilled when they saw they were going to be doing it again!

 

The students spent one 30 minute class coloring in their perspective designs using construction paper crayons.

 

I gave each table white oil pastels, and two trays of blue, black and purple liquid watercolor.  They also got a couple of cups of salt.

 

After demonstrating and reviewing how to sprinkle their salt onto their wet watercolor, I let them get started.

 

I really like how this technique worked with the liquid watercolors!

 

I REALLY stress to the kids that less is more with this technique!  Some of the kids put way too much salt on and they don't get cool effects like in this close-up!  I have them use a small pinch at a time.

 

The students also used white oil pastel to draw some space details in the background before they painted if they wanted to.

 

 

 

 

 

I have four more classes to finish up next week.  My 4th and 5th graders are finishing up their perspective pieces as well.  Next week as they finish up, I will be grading, grading, and more grading until I see rubrics in my sleep as our marking quarter is coming to and end.  

Enjoy your long weekend if you have Martin Luther King Day off still!  Some districts in New Jersey lost it to make-up days for the days lost from Hurricane Sandy.  For the past two years the teachers in my district have also had the day off.  It used to be an in-service day for the teachers and we would be at school for professional development. 

Yeah!  Three day weekend!  :)

Salt Watercolor Koi Fish - 3d Grade

 

I needed a quick project for the end of the year for my third grades.  I saw this lesson for a Koi Fish watercolor on Art Projects For Kids.  (I tried to set up a direct link to the exact page for the lesson but the link won't work.  Go to Art Projects for Kids and type in Koi Fish into the search bar for her site.  It will pop right up.)

I went through the steps with my third graders on how to sketch the Koi Fish "Bird's Eye" view.  They outlined them with Sharpie marker and colored them with crayon.  The following week they painted the water with watercolor and sprinkled salt on top for really cool effects.  Salt watercolor is always a hit!  Quick & Easy!  I let them choose any color for their water since we are on the very last of our watercolors.  One small tip:  If you are going to salt watercolor, don't pick the week when the weather is ungodly hot and humid.  Any salt that falls onto the floor or anywhere else melts from the humidity leaving what looks like little water droplets all over the art room.  As soon as the kids steps on them they track it throughout the room and leave a greasy, slippery mess everywhere!  The kids of course thought it was cool when they realized how easy it made it to slide on the floor!  It was disgusting!  No one cleaned my room that night and the next morning when I entered the room, it was worse!  Had to get the day Custodian to come up and quickly mop the floor!  Of course nothing was drying because of the humidity, so I laid out pathways all over the room with newspaper so the kids didn't break thier necks!  Here are some pictures I snapped quickly before they took them home.  Enjoy!  :)