Ladybugs & Vines - 1st Grade

 

I was going through some artwork while I'm trying to get all of my end of the year "stuff" done.  I came across a couple of my first grade's lady bug and vine pictures that had not been handed back yet.  My first grader's had a lot of fun creating these!  We created them back in March when we were all anticipating Spring to start!  They started by painting a vine and leaves across their paper.  They had the most fun printing the flowers!

Can you guess what we used to create these pieces of art?!  The bottoms of empty soda and water bottles!  Yes, empty bottles!  I saw the idea on Pinterest from Alphamom and thought, "How great is that!"  The inspiration for flower vines came from a post I saw on Painted Paper.  Her students painted beautiful morning glory vines!  I made sure to only save the bottles that looked like flower shapes on the bottom.  We used blue and purple for the flowers.  I poured a small amount of tempera paint into some wax coated paper take-out containers (clean and never used!) that I have in my collection of "Anything & Everything" that I save (because you never know when you are going to need it).

Each table got two blue and two purple.  I placed a bottle in each one.  When they were ready to stamp their flowers they took turns sharing the bottles.  For the centers I put a small amount of bright pink into the lids that go with the containers.  They then stamped the centers with the bottle caps.  When they were done we let them dry.  Each student got a piece of red construction paper and drew a lady bug from the drawing directions I had posted on my white board.  They colored, cut and put their names on the back and tucked them away in an envelope for the next class!  During the second class I put out oil pastels and let the students add details to their pictures.  Bright, cheery and very cute! 

We talked about using dark and light green on the vines and leaves to highlight and shade.

The painted sections on the side are not part of their picture. They are the place mats we paint on.

This is one of my favorites. Love the shape of the ladybug and how they detailed the flowers!

Love the flowers! They look like Fourth of July fireworks!

The painted sides on these are paper towels that the kids would wipe their brushes on. I save the ones that have great color combos! Again, not part of the original picture, just needed some color on the sides for the photo!

This student took the time to color the whole sky in blue. He said leaving it white made the sky look cloudy! I love how kids "see" the world around them!