Clay Lily Pads

This was one of my favorite clay projects and the kids were so thrilled with the results.  To go along with our Monet mini-unit my students made clay lily pads.  They are made in 2 separate pieces.

First we created the lily pad.  It was a great way to introduce the kids to some clay terminology.  They first rolled out a 'slab' of clay.  We used thin wooden blocks on either side of the clay so that I could ensure that they wouldn't roll the clay out too thin or too thick.  Using cardboard lily pad templates they were then able to trace and trim out their leaf shaped piece.  Using wooden skewers they then traced in details, being carfeul not to cut too far into the slab.

 

The flowers were made in much the same way.  Once again the kids rolled out a slab, traced and cut out their flower shape.  Then they gently lifted the petals to create a flower form.  Using different tools around the classroom they added details to the center of the flower.

When the pieces were dry they were fired, glazed and refired.



As a final touch we added a tea light and wrapped them in cellophane and gave them to our mom's for Mother's Day!  I wish I had a few more photos to share but I never seem to have my camera at school when I need it!  These were all the photos I happened to have taken with my phone!

Claude Monet - Japanese Bridge

These are paintings that my Grade 2 class did last year.  We did a mini-unit on Claude Monet.  My students really enjoyed working with water colours to create a replica of Monet's Japanese Bridge.  We did them over a few lessons.

I first got the students to draw the bridges with white pastels so that they would still see the bridge even after covering them with paint.  We used different shades of blue and some purple for the water.  They experimented with yellows and greens and even some blue for the upper portion of their painting.

When the paintings were dry, they went over the bridge drawings with white paint and used various shades of green to create the lily pads.  Final touches to the lilly pads were made with white and pink pencil crayons.

Starry Night

This year my son's Grade 3/4 teacher invited me to do an art lesson with her class.  I decided to do a project based on Van Gogh's Starry Night.  The basic idea for this project comes from the site http://www.mrsbrownart.com/ which has wonderful step by step instructions on how to map out the landscape and sky features.  I have modified that lesson by using both chalk and oil pastels, and wanted to make the project unique to the landscape of British Columbia.

Materials:

9" X 12" black construction paper

pencils

chalk pastels

oil pastels

After drawing out the landscape features in pencil we lightly coloured and rubbed chalk pastels to create the background colours.  Then we used oil pastels to add short lines over the chalk.  Though not as effective in the photos, the chalk underlayer really made the stars and moon 'glow' in the artwork.

Grade 3/4 Starry Nights in BC

Snowmen

This art project was based on the book Snowmen At Night by Caralyn Buehner.  It was an activity we did with our Grade 4 Big Buddy class.  To encourage the little ones to make their snowmen big enough, we started by giving them circle templates to trace the outline of their snowman shape.  White chalk was then used to make a thick shade of white on the inside of the snowman shape.  Using their fingers to rub and spread the chalk towards the center of the circle shapes gave the snowmen some dimension.  Oil pastels were then used to draw and colour on scarves, hats, faces, and snowflakes. 

Grade One Snowmen