Heart Prints - K, 1st and 2nd Grades

My K-2 art room has been printing up a storm this week in anticipation of our school's yearly celebration of Kindness and Justice Week!  Every January during the week of Martin Luther King's birthday our school has what is called our "Kindness and Justice Week Celebration".

Each year a different book is chosen that shares a lesson in kindness and all of the school's activities during the week center around the book and it's message of kindness. This years book is...

 

 It was the perfect time to try out this idea for making heart stamps out of recycled cardboard I found on Pinterest.  

 

All of the classes started by painting a colorful background using watercolors.  

 

I spent an entire PLC meeting (multi-tasking people!) and evening rolling, folding and taping over 30 cardboard hearts!  I found that if you rolled the cardboard around a large glue stick or a marker it was much easier on your hands!  Although, I do think that if I had octopus arms it would have come in handy a few times when I was holding and taping! 

 

SUCCESS!

I made the hearts in various sizes and designs.  I made sure that on one side of the stamp all of the edges were as close to flush as possible so the kids could get a good print.  Even if it was slightly off, after they started stamping with the paint the edges mushed down slightly and they were all getting good print images.

 

 

Each stamp was 3-4 inches tall so they were chunky and easy to hold and stamp with.

 

Before the children made their prints, I gave them some materials (tissue paper circles I cut and cut up pieces of last years painting place mats) to cut into shapes and add a little bit of collage to their paintings first.

 

I poured purple and blue paint onto paper plates that our PTO donated to me last spring.  They were leftover from our school's Senior brunch.  It made for a very easy clean up when we were done stamping at the end of the day!  If the plate got a little soggy, I just put another one underneath it.  I started with two plates together for stability.  They actually held up really well.  I think they were more of a heavy weight plate, not the cheapo kind.

I demonstrated to the children how to stamp with our cool heart stamps to create their prints before I let them use them. 

Let the stamping begin!

 

The kids loved using the heart stamps!

 

They thought it was a very creative idea for recycling cardboard.

 

 Some said, "You come up with the coolest ideas Mrs.C!"

I told them "I found the idea on the computer."

 

When the kids were done printing, they carried their masterpieces to the drying rack. 

 

Next week I will be hanging them up around school and on our front hallway bulletin board.

I will post some of the finished pieces next week.  I meant to take some pictures before I left school today but I was busy looking for my desk...

 

It was buried under many projects I had taken off the drying rack and I spent some time organizing and putting them away after school!

Thus, I forgot that I wanted to photo some things...

There's always next week! 

Have a great weekend!

Mrs.C :)

Color Mixing - 1st Grade

 

It's Fall people!  When you teach elementary school it is time for lots of pumpkins!  Kids just LOVE pumpkins!  Who doesn't love pumpkins, right?!  The other week while checking out the blogs I saw this post by Patty at Deep Space Sparkle.  A simple but beautiful lesson using pumpkins!  Pure inspiration!  I started my first grades on their pumpkins the next day!

                                                                         

 

My students started by drawing their pumpkins in pencil using the directions Patty gave for drawing her Starlight Pumpkins.  They traced their pencil lines with black oil pastel and set to work painting!

I gave them red and yellow tempera paint and demonstrated how to mix the colors on their pumpkins to get orange.  When the kids finished painting, they put them on the drying rack to dry.

Previous to the second class, I painted some large sheets of tag board green and gave them different textures.  I cut them up into small pieces that the students cut their leaves from.

 Love the scraped texture on this one

I cut this plastic lid to make the scraper

Overlapping swirls

Made the swirls with this small scrubbie from the dollar store

 

I cut them up into smaller pieces the students cut their leaves from.  I also gave them gold paint for their vines, stems and to add a little to their pumpkins. They LOVED the gold paint!  Here are some of the finished pieces...  Have a great weekend and go pick some pumpkins!                                                                                      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4th Grade - Pulled Paint Castles

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This past spring I stumbled across a picture on Pinterest of a lesson from Mrs. Maynards Artroom.  Her sixth graders made these awesome pulled paint castles!  I loved the beauty and simplicity of the project. 

I created several practice examples before introducing this lesson to my fourth graders.  I cut  pieces of mat board into different widths.  The students created their buildings by pulling the paint across the paper.  Each table had plastic plates with cool colors.  I poured blue, green and purple paint into each plate.  Then demonstrated how to dip the edge of the mat board into the paint and pull it across the paper to create the sections of their castles.  The students loved how pulling the paint across the paper created a kind of color stain, almost like a tie-dye effect.  Some of the kids got so carried away they forgot to leave some white paper for the sky!  Those students cut the top of their paper to create the shape of the castle roof when it was dry.

The following class of students added details to their castles with black Sharpie marker, construction paper and crayons.  I created an idea packet of castles details, windows, doors, arches, etc...  The students had these to look at for ideas and inspiration while adding their details.  I'll be definitely using this technique again, the students loved it!