Kindergarten - Scarecrows!

SCARECROWS! I love Scarecrows in the Fall! Especially when they are made by Kindergarteners! I LOVE the book Scarecrow by Cynthia Rylant. It is beautifully written and beautifully illustrated by Lauren Stringer. We talk about the TEXTURE Fall can bring, that we will be making scarecrow pictures with real and implied textures.

Week 1 - I share the book first with my class, and then we prep papers for our plaid and rough denim jeans. A 6x4 brown construction paper with crayon plaid and then coloring with the side of a blue crayon on a blue 3x4 piece of construction paper. We save these for the next week.

Week 2 - I give the students a 11x17 piece of light blue paper and a 11x9 piece of light green paper. Students are asked to barely cut a strip off one wide end of the paper, to make it slightly bumpy. Then we glue this down on the bottom half of the paper. Student use crayons to draw a sun and clouds, then corn stalks on the right and left side of the paper, I remind them, the scarecrow will be in the middle, so don't draw corn there. If they want to make the sky more blue, they can use crayon to color the sky. I give them a 1/2"x 6" strip to glue down to the center of the paper for the stick our scarecrow will be set on.

I draw on the back of their brown plaid papers a rectangle on each side to cut off so that it looks like a shirt. Then a line on the back of the blue paper to cut it in half to have 2 pieced. We glue the shirt down first, then the two legs. 

Week 3 - Faces - I give a 3" square with a circle drawn on it, have them cut it out and glue down. I also have them fringe some yellow strips of paper for hay coming out of the cuffs. They glue these on as well. Then some fun finishing touches... button eyes, I have pre-cut fabric squares for knee patches and burlap for straw hats. Then a black crayon smile that looks stitched on. Any any other stitches they want to add! If they want to add a red barn on the horizon line, they can do that too.  :)

There are lots of ways to make this project, I have come to like this version a lot. These look adorable all hanging together in the hallway. :)

 

3rd Grade - James Rizzi Art Folders!

Who doesn't love James Rizzi??? His artwork is always a favorite of my students! We look at his cityscapes closely, noticing the perspective and layers of spaces he creates. While most items are created flat, the near and far element is definitely there! Here are a few samples of Rizzi's cityscapes  I use with my 3rd graders...

When I start the lesson with students, we are looking to create foreground, middleground and background.  We start by drawing a line a little lower than the middle to create the background first... the silly buildings with personality!  After the buildings are in place, they are able to decide how to finish the foreground and middleground.  Street with cars, subway, park with playground, sidewalks, river with boats... or anything they come up with!

1st Grade - Art Folders inspired by Rousseau!

This lesson is inspired by Henri Rousseau's painting, Surprised! Storm in the Forest. I love this lesson for many reasons... First, the results are always great.  Second, it is a great directed drawing lesson for first graders.... they all draw the same steps to complete a whole tiger, but they have no assistance, and feel proud and great at the end!  Which results in my favorite reason I love this project... It is a creative confidence boost!  You know they're proud when they work so hard to make it look fabulous!

Pencil first... We draw a tiger based on Ed Emberley.  U-shape head, long nose... then I showed them how to draw the tiger looking like he is crouching, ready to pounce. To do that we draw 2 paws, (large potatoes) at the bottom of the page, Draw the body from paw, all the way around to other paw. Then hind legs on each side, tail... voila!

Draw the green grass and branches hiding the tiger direct with green markers. 

Color in the leaves with crayon. 

Outline and color in the tiger!

I would like to add... I do not think there is anything wrong with a directed drawing lesson for young elementary students.  They have no strategies of how to draw unless they follow steps a few times.  Once they understand how to look at something and break it down into simple shapes...  And realizing there are millions of ways to draw something, they will have the tools and confidence to do it without directions.  I always say, "YES" when a student wants to draw something differently. A project like this, they usually are not changing much, they want it to look similar.  They drew 100% of their tiger by themselves, which for some, was a huge accomplishment!