Snowflake Collage

We have been experimenting with different printmaking activities to create these snowflake collages.

We added a computer activity to go along with our art display.

To create these collages we first used bubble wrap to create the background "blizzard".  Students painted blue paint onto their bubble wrap then flipped it over and made a few prints all over their paper.  Then they painted white onto the bubble wrap which created a lighter tint of blue and printed that onto their papers.  They continued with the white paint until they were actually seeing white prints on their papers.

At another station kids used brayers to roll paint onto snowflake stamps.  Some of the stamps I easily made by glueing large foam stamps onto cardboard.  The other smaller snowflakes were ones I bought on sale at Michael's for about 75 cents each.

When everything was dry the students had to carefully cut out their snowflakes.  I asked them to leave a white boarder around each flake and not get the scizzors to cut the paint.

Here are some of their samples:

We also added a word processing component with our display. My kids worked on this during their computer block.  Here is the sign I posted in the middle of the display:

 

Snowman Families

This was a last minute change of plans for my Friday Buddies activity. My Grade One class is learning about families this term, and this week I taught them the poem Snowman Family by Valerie Schiffer. And then Thursday evening I came across this project on Artsonia and knew I just had to do it.  So when I came in Friday morning I quickly gathered supplies for this new lesson.

We had already discussed the difference between our immediate family and extended family.  Students were asked to recreate their own immediate families out of snowmen and to consider the size of each family member when creating them.

To create a snowman the students used regular white chalk to draw the 3 circles of the snowperson and went over each circle 2 or 3 times.  When each snowperson was done they used a finger to gently smudge the chalk (using a circular motion) into the inside of the circles. 

Then they used oil pastels to create the noses and eyes - making sure to keep the noses within the shape of each head.  Next they cut out each snowperson.  They used templates to trace and cut out the circle and base of the snowglobe.  Then they coloured in the bottom of the snowglobe and added snowflakes.  In hindsight I should have either used white oil pastel or white crayon to colour in the snowglobe as you can see that the chalk left a lot of smudges.

Here are a few more samples:

Snowflake Resists

Here is a winter art project I did with my grade one class last year before I started this blog.  I printed out large snowflake templates on my computer and allowed them to trace them by taping a blank paper to one of the templates.  Kids who had difficulty seeing the template through the paper were allowed to place their papers on the window.  The light passing through the window made the black lines show through more easily. Some children chose to remain at their desks and could see the outlines just fine. They used white oil pastel to try to replicate the snowflake onto their blank papers.  Encourage your students to press hard with the oil pastels.

When the large snowflake was complete they made other freehand drawings of smaller snowflakes around the large one.

Then the students used watercolors in cool colours to paint right over their oil pastel drawings and tracing. While the paint was still wet they sprinkled salt over the paint to create a frosty effect.




This creative student had the patience to outline the entire template instead of colouring it in!



 

Polar Bears

My Grade Ones made these cute polar bears back in February. 

Materials:

black construction paper

blue construction paper

white cartridge paper

white chalk

black and white oil pastel

black charcoal chalks (optional)

Using white chalk on black construction paper they used the sides of their chalk to rub a round shape for the head and a body.  Two smaller circles made the ears.  Students used their fingers to gently blend the chalk to remove any harsh lines that may have been created.  Black oil pastels were used to create the facial features and the inner ears.  We rubbed a little bit if charcoal under the head to create a bit of a shadow.  Then we cut our the whole polar bear shape.

 I gave each student a precut piece of white cartridge paper and showed them how to carefully tear along one of the longer ends to create our snow.  I would have used white construction paper but find the colour that the paper company calls 'white' to be extremely off-white and when placed beside the white chalk it looked more like dirty snow or slush!

We then glued our snow to the bottom of the blue construction paper.  This photo is a bit misleading as I actually got the students to glue the polar bear on first and then draw the snowflakes and wind.

The final display in the classroom was adorable!