Chalk Pastel Bunnies for Easter

How adorable are these little guys?!? 

I experimented with a new bunny portrait lesson this year.  These bunnies were created by my little Grade 1 and 2 artists.

Created by 6 year old artist!

I love chalk pastels.  They are one of my favourite mediums to work with.  

But be forwarned as they are VERY messy.  

We did this lesson over 3 days as I spent the first day letting them explore the pastels on large sheets of newsprint and then practising how to make our bunny shapes.  We also practised not putting our free hand onto the markings we made on our papers...

The students started with a neck, then made 2 touching circles (like a sideways 8).  They traced over their circles repeatedly, trying to make them both the same size.  Its okay if they aren't right on the first go as you can always add to the shapes and rub away some of the mistakes.  Once the circles were pretty equal they continued tracing their circles a few more times.

Next they added a "hill" on the 8.  Again tracing until they were happy it was fairly centred on the sideways 8.

Next they added the ears.  I had said that they kind of make an M shape, and as you can see some of them took that very literally!! 

Once they were happy with their bunny form they were asked to use ONE finger to blend the chalk as if they were re-drawing the bunny - going in circle motions around the 8, back and forth on the hill, and the ears they were free to colour in the the chalk.  They were to try to drag the chalk into the shapes to fill them as they were tracing.

For the next part we switched to oil pastels.  They made a small upside down triangle in the 'dip' of the top of the sideways 8 and drew a line and upside down Y for the rest of the muzzle.  Eyes were added to the sides of the head and inner ears were coloured.

I got them to paint the backgrounds in liquid water colors to wash away any fingerprints around the bunny heads.

The final touch was to add whiskers with a black sharpie.

Stained "Glass" Trees

Here is an easy paper activity to do with your classes.  I got this idea from  HERE.  This activity could easily be done with the trees all in white and tissue in different cool colours for a fabulous winter window display - maybe next year for me! 

Students first cut out the tree template from 9 X 12 inch green card stock.  Then they glued pre-cut coloured strips of construction paper to one side of the tree.  They trimmed off any parts that showed past the tree on the outside.  They then added dots of white glue all around the template and strips and laid down a piece of green tissue paper.  When dry, they carefully trimmed off the excess tissue.

I did limit the kids to 6 or 7 strips though I don't think that's necessary: however, I do recommend that they use no less than 6.

Haunted Houses

These amazing haunted houses were created by my Grade 1/2 class.  

I used this lesson idea by Art Teacher in LA.

First we used a directed drawing lesson for the house.  I used the steps found here for our houses, with a few modifications.  We discussed window shapes and students were free to include as many windows as they wanted.  I encouraged them to make big shapes. Students then drew a spooky tree and a moon.  I allowed them to also add tombstones or bats if they wished.

We then used our yellow oil pastels to colour in the moon and the windows and doors.  Black oil pastels were used everywhere else.

Students then painted blue and purple liquid watercolors for the backgrounds.  

Happy Hallowe'en!

Here are a few other Hallowe'en projects to try:

 Frankenstein Kids

 In a Dark Dark Wood

 Frankenstein Cardboard tube craft

  Going Batty

Spring Flowers

I am so impressed with the sponge print flowers this Kindergarten/Grade 1 class created.  We used the same technique as we did for our SUNFLOWERS and POINSETTIAS.  

So pretty! :)  

The only difference with this lesson is we used different colors of green chalk pastel 

to color in the background.

Easter Egg Clay Bunnies

This is a project I've been wanting to try with my students for awhile.  Unfortunately we are already on our 2 week spring break and won't get back until after Easter.  I barely managed to squeeze in St. Patrick's day activities.  So I did this project at home with my daughter.  

This bunny head was made using plastic Easter eggs and salt dough.  We used the top (pointy) part.  I first covered the egg with a bit of saran wrap as my eggs had little holes and I wanted to make sure that the eggs slipped out easily afterward.

First we made a nice flat pancake.

Next we draped the pancake over the egg and used our fingers to help it take the shape of the egg.  We used a plastic knife to cut away the excess on the bottom.

Then we added facial features.  We created little balls of clay that we pressed firmly onto the face using a little water to act as our glue.

Then we formed and pressed on ears.  I purposely tried to attach them together as I thought it would be more solid that way.  We also used the end of a paintbrush to poke eyes, but adding big googly eyes after would also be super cute!

We let this dry for a few days until the outside was pretty firm.  The inside was still pretty damp.  Then we removed the plastic egg and saran wrap and I placed it in the oven.  I just put it in after cooking dinner one night and let it dry as the oven cooled.

Finally we painted the bunny using acrylic paints and a black sharpie filled in the eyes.

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

Piet Mondrian

I have done many different Piet Mondrian inspired art activities.  But this one is now my absolute favorite and so easy to do!

These were all done by Kindergarten and Grade One students.  

The children dipped precut pieces of thick cardboard into a dish of black paint and used the cardboard to print lines on their white paper.  They were encouraged to make vertical and horizontal lines that would form rectangular shapes on their papers.  Watch out for those kids who are so fascinated by the printmaking that they don't know when to stop! :) 

When the paint had dried they were to look for enclosed shapes and colour them in using oil pastels in the primary colours.  

Some were so interesting even without the pastel.  I wish I had taken a few photos of those.  Either way I think they are frame-worthy!

Winter Sky Mosaics

This was a fun art project my Grade 1 class did with their Grade 7 buddies.  The idea for this project came photos uploaded on Pinterest, 

This project was completed over a couple of days.

Day 1: We divided and painted a white sheet of paper various shades of blue that the students mixed themselves.

Day 2 and 3:  After gluing on a circle for the moon, we cut strips of white paper into smaller pieces and worked our way around the moon.  We then glued and worked our way out from the moon creating the mosaic - going from lighter to darker.  We cut and glued one shade of blue at a time.

Day 4: Our big buddies drew an interesting tree shape for the Grade Ones to cut out and glued them, along with the ground, onto the mosaics.