flowers | Please Don't Eat the Artwork

May 16, 2017
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Flower Pot Resist Paintings

First graders did a fabulous job with these flower pot resist paintings! We began by drawing patterned vases. Then, students drew an arrangement of blossoms inside.

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Once they finished drawing, they traced over their lines with oil pastels and used water colors to paint their designs.

Most of these paintings were finished just in time for mother’s day. How lovely!

Nice work first graders!

❤ Ms. K

May 8, 2017
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Wowee woa wow this project was a doozy. The idea for this lesson came from a combination of this and this. We began by looking at contemporary and classic folk art from Georgia, folk art from the south, and folk art from Mexico. When students compared and contrasted all of the work they noticed that it all has bright colors and patterns and is mostly about plants, animals, people, and nature. So with that inspiration we got to work!

We began by creating texture on a piece of construction paper using texture mats and crayons. Then, students created colorful patterns on popsicle sticks and glued it to the bottom the the paper to create a table for their flower pot. The next week, students created a vase design in their sketchbooks. Then, everyone got a piece of rainbow scratch paper and a toothpick or stick. They created a patterned flower pot and were amazed when scratching the waxy black surface revealed a vibrant rainbow beneath!

The next few weeks after that were spent creating and constructing flowers. Fourth graders could choose any color of construction paper to draw their design on. They used markers to trace over their lines and add extra pizzazz. Stems, leaves, and details were also added.

There were lots of handouts of flowers and vases so students could feel confident about their ideas. I am so proud of how incredibly creative these turned out!

Way to go fourth graders!

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❤ Ms. K

October 3, 2016
by artwithmsk 2 Comments

Psychedelic Succulent Still Life Paintings

The idea and resources for this lesson came from Art With Mrs. Nguyen! When I first saw her blog post about this lesson I was so inspired that I made one myself with gouache and watercolors!

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I cannot emphasize enough how awesome this project is. It was a great way to kick off the school year with 5th graders because it gave them so many choices and opportunities to be expressive with colors, patterns, and composition. This one really involved a lot of choice and voice! We started off on the first day with a PowerPoint and handouts with examples of different succulents — both can be found in Mrs. Nguyen’s incredible TpT store!

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Students were encouraged to add visual texture to their succulents for detail and use expressive lines and shapes to create a pattern on their pot. They added 2 horizontal lines for a table or the ground. The final draft was on 9×12 paper and all the lines were of course traced with sharpies. 5th graders could paint the background however they wanted using watercolors. They used colored pencils to color in their cacti. I showed them how to create gradients using analogous colors and they did not have to make their plants realistic. Many kids chose vibrant rainbow colors or used color schemes for their favorite sports teams to give their artwork a personal twist.

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To get the table to look like realistic wood, we drew from observation by looking at the wooden tables in the art room. I also did a demonstration of how to make a galaxy design with watercolors and a few kids used salt to create lovely texture!

Awesome job 5th graders!!

❤ Ms. K

September 26, 2016
by artwithmsk 2 Comments

Flowers and Portraits

I love kickin’ off the school year with 3rd graders by teaching about Georgia O’keeeffe and her flower paintings. It is such a great project to get them back in the swing of artistic habits and creative thinking. I have posted about this project before but I just couldn’t resist showing off this year’s batch of fantastic florals!

First graders are also finishing up on their tissue paper portraits (original post here) and they are amazing! Once again this project was awesome for teaching primary color mixing in a new way.

Way to go 1st and 3rd graders!

🙂

October 15, 2014
by artwithmsk 2 Comments

Emoji Color Wheel Adjective Flowers

Last year I did a similar version of this project and I really wanted to pump it up with some pop-culture references and common-core connections this year. So, I threw in emojis and adjectives!

An emoji (I explained to my 2^nd graders) is the little smiley face that you send in a text message. This lead to the conversation – how can colors show emotions? We described how different colors make us feel and realized that we were naming adjectives.

To create the flowers we began by making painted paper and cutting it into circles. We used scraps to create complementary colored petals. (This also tied into the whole feeling thing by talking about how you feel when someone compliments you.)

Then, students used oil pastels to create emojis and write an adjective to describe the face and the feeling. These turned out hilarious and adorable!

September 30, 2013
by artwithmsk 1 Comment

Complementary Flowers

Second Graders learned all about Complementary Colors to create flowers. I was inspired by this lesson over at Deep Space Sparkle. We began with a color mixing magic show and carousel painting. Students cut circles out of their painted paper for the middle of their flowers.

They glued the circles onto big paper making sure to give each one “personal space.”

Then, they used the scraps to make petals. We talked about how complementary colors live across the street from each other on the color wheel. Students noticed that “complementary” sounds a lot like “compliment” and we talked about what it means to give someone a compliment.

The next time we met, 2nd graders used tissue paper to add more petals.

Some kids who finished early had the opportunity to decorate their flowers with construction paper crayons. Overall this project turned out beautiful and was extremely successful at teaching complementary colors. 🙂

September 24, 2013
by artwithmsk 1 Comment

Georgia O’Keeffe’s Flowers and Skulls

Third graders did an amazing job with their first project of the year! We began by talking about Georgia O’keeffe and looking at some of her most famous artwork.

They were amazed to learn that she painted more than 2000 paintings in her lifetime and was fascinated by flowers and skulls. 3rd graders were inspired to create their own O’Keeffe-style paintings. We began by sketching out an idea by looking at flowers, skulls, and bones. Students were encouraged to come up with an original composition that fills up the space, goes off the page, and is based on realistic designs.

Students chose their favorite sketch and made their “final draft” on big paper. They traced over their design with sharpies. Intermediate Colors were used to fill in the designs with beautiful colors. The kids loved using liquid water colors to get a tie-dye effect and create vibrant, bold artwork.

May 22, 2013
by artwithmsk 3 Comments

Picasso’s Hand Holding Flowers

The idea from this project comes from The Artrageous Afternoon Blog. It is based on Picasso’s Hands Holding Flowers. I remember this artwork used to hang in the hallway in my parents house in a yellow frame and when I was a kid I was always interested in the simplicity of it and the way that the flowers were so bright and bold against contour-line hands. Who is the giver of these flowers and who is the receiver? It is such a perfect moment captured in a unique way.

Kindergartners replicated the spirit of this artwork with their own hands holding flowers. We began by drawing patterns of lines and shapes on paper.

Students used construction paper to trace their hands and cut them out.

They used scraps from this project to create torn paper flower stems.

They even got to look at real (fake) flowers to see what parts of a flower look like.

We used tissue paper and more scraps and bits from other projects to create the flowers.

These were really fun to make and they look kind of wild. I have mentioned before that I try really hard to steer away from “craft” projects (which this very easily could have been). Craft style projects all end up looking nearly identical and they have such neat craftsmanship that an adult might as well have made it. I want my students to have ownership of their work and have as little of my aesthetic or influence as possible. Kids should feel empowered as artists; how often do you hear an adult say “I am terrible at art, I can’t draw a stick figure to save my life!” Hopefully my students/future adults will never utter these words and will instead go forth into the world as creative and innovative thinkers and problem solvers. (Even if that means having some crazy looking authentic art!)