Top Ten Winter Projects for Kids!

It's that time of the year...where, if you live in Tennessee, that means it's 70 degrees one day and chance of snow the next (y'all better believe there'll be some ice cubes in my toilet, pj's inside out, white crayons on ALL the window sills and whatever else I gotta do to make a light dusting happen). With that in mind, I thought I'd share my Top Ten Winter Projects for Los Kiddos!

I'll actually be sharing more about my thoughts on holiday art and alternatives to that on this week's podcast. Y'all know I have a podcast, right? You can take a listen here and be sure and subscribe...cuz the sound of my voice is pretty close to that of angels singing (if they were being tortured, that is). 

Now, without further ado, lemme share my faves with you. I'll be linking back to the original blog post where you'll find the complete lesson (and sometimes video instruction!). Here you go!

1. Heather Galler-Inspired Patterned Hot Cocoa Cups! This is a lesson I did a couple years ago with my second graders...a lesson that we had to wash down with a cup of hot cocoa, of course!

2. Printed and Collaged Winter Self-Portraits! Need a good printmaking lesson for your kiddos? Try this one on for size. I did this lesson with my second graders but could def work for kids as young as first and as old as fourth grade. Also, if you don't have brayers and printing ink, try THIS super amazing and simple printmaking alternative that just involves markers and water!

3. Fourth Grade Faux Stained Glass Windows! Hey-hey, there's a video lesson included in this link! I LOVED this project and so did the kiddos...but I think that adding the layer of liquid starch would have made this much less messy. Check out using liquid starch with your chalk pastels here and prepare to be AMAZED! 

4. Charley Harper-Inspired Woodland Animals! Video instruction here! I can promise that there will be cuteness. Charley Harper has so many amazing animal-themed works of art that you'll find endless amounts of inspiration from him with just a quick google search. 

5. Kindergarten Starry Night Winter Landscapes! These are such a joy to watch the kiddos create! We learn all about tints, shades, Starry Night, collage and more. This is a lesson I bring back each and every year. 

6. and 7. Snowflakes and Snowflake Prints! I used to make oodles of snowflakes at the dinner table growing up...but kids don't really do that anymore. Time to change all that. What do you do with snowflakes once they are cut out? Well, you could use them as stencils and print! We printed on Gelli Arts gelli plates when we were finished cutting out our snowflakes. We printed on fabric and then learned how to sew to create these wallhangings. My third graders had a blast creating these. 

8. I NEVER get tired of Foil Relief Projects! I mean, really. Hang around this blog long enough and you'll find several versions of foil relieve. This was a fun way to create something magical with our paper cutouts.

9. Mural Making! What do you do when your music teacher needs a little bit of decoration for the music program? You put your students t work!

They'll take ownership, responsibility and have so much fun doing so!

Don't need a mural for a program but still want to crank one out? This one has something in it from every student in the school! You can find out the details here. 

10. Winter Guided Drawing! Let's be real, people: there's nothing more crazy than these last few weeks before school is out for winter break. I find that guided drawing really is a great way to calm kiddos and review the elements of art. Here are some of my faves...and if you click the link, you'll find more details.

What I love about winter themed projects as opposed to holiday art is that 1. IT'S ALL INCLUSIVE! I work at a very diverse school and I would never want anyone to feel left out. Therefore, winter art is the best route for me. 

Another bonus: there's no deadline! With holiday art, there's the pressure to get the artwork complete before the holidays arrive...but with winter art, if we don't finish before winter break, well, we'll return to it after the fact. 

Um, is there anything cuter than a winking bunny?!

MAYBE a scarf-wearing penguin! LOVE to hear your favorite winter themed projects, please share below...and if you have a blog or IG where you share your students' masterpieces, please feel free to add the link so we can all learn from your amazingness. Have a great week, y'all!

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In the Art Room: Patterned Landscapes with Houses!

So, I totally thought I shared this video lesson with y'all in a previous post but after some digging, I couldn't find it on my blog! So sorry! I oftentimes post a video to my YouTube channel without adding it here simply because I'm crazy and forgetful. However, if you subscribe, you can stay up to date on my instructional videos (along with some other stuff) that you are more than welcome to use in your art teacherin' world. 

But first, let's talk about these amazing third grade patterned landscapes!

 Forgive me but this blog post is gonna be photo heavy...I'm just in love with this project! Every single one turned out so happy, colorful and bright. Here's the video used to teach this lesson:

This did take us about three and a half art classes. While working on this project, my early finishers worked on this lesson which was a great tie-in what with the pattern review:

My students are now obsessed with drawing three dimensional houses!

 I'm going to tell you exactly what art supplies we used for this project because, let's be honest, one of the reasons these look so good is because they are so bright and colorful. Kid artists deserve to use quality art supplies just like grown folk. That's easy to say...but not always easy to afford. The supplies I'm about to share are not bananas expensive...but they aren't your bargain basements fare either.

 To start, my students used fluorescent oil pastels by Sargent. These are my favorite to use when we are creating a watercolor resist because of how bold and bright they shine through the paint.

They run about $7 a pop...and I purchase enough for two kids to share. You can find them in just about any art supply catalog. We don't use these all the time...like I said, we love them for resist. I've shared these many times before on my blog, I just love them!

 I love both liquid and watercolor paint. However, I wanted the kids to use pan watercolor paint for this project because I'm still learning the liquid watercolor paint ropes. How much water do I add to dilute? It looks black in the cup and that confuses the kids...you get the idea. I'm working on my issues with liquid. When it comes to pan watercolor tho, not all are created equal. I LOVE Crayola's Mixing Colors:

Okay...here's the deal. I didn't always love Crayola's watercolor paint until I discovered theses guys. Here's the deal: DO NOT BUY THIS SET unless you don't have any watercolor trays. Instead, by the refill colors in the set. Here's what I have: I got rid of the black, white and brown from my watercolor trays. Now I have refill pans that I simply pop out and replace of the following Crayola watercolors: red, red-orange, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue, blue violet, purple and magenta. I place them in the paint pan in that order. 

 These photos have not been altered...that's truly how bright the watercolor and oil pastels are! Now you see why I love 'em so!

 For our houses, we used cereal boxes. I sent out an email at the start of the year asking for cereal boxes simply because we need that cardboard for projects like this! 

 The kids used "naked" oil pastels to do a rubbing on the house before either collaging the doors and windows on or painting them. That was a hot mess of a day, not gonna lie. We had paint, cardboard, paper, glue and puffy paint all on the tables. 

 As far as puffy paint goes, I like Tulip brand that can be purchased in most craft stores. It's expensive at about $3 a bottle...but I LIVE for puffy paint and so do my kids!

  Once the houses were dry and the background was complete, the assembly was ready to happen.

 I am the proud owner of a TON of foam core from matting and framing artwork. I simply chopped that into bits for our pop out foam.

 To really get those houses in the foreground to stand out, the kids made sure to double up the foam core. One piece was used for those in the middle ground and either one or none for the background.

 With these complete, my students are moving on...we are now onto creating self portraits for our winter art show!

 I decided to give myself a wee break and use a lesson from last year for our selfies...it was a huge hit so I'm excited to give it another go:

We'll be using my favorite chalk brand for this project: Faber-Castell!

 Alright, I did say this post was going to be photo-heavy, right?

 But, can you blame me?! Each one is just so happy!

 I definitely will be doing this project again. I can't think of anything I'd change about it.

 Even when some friends went wild with the puffy paint, it worked!

 You'll have to keep me posted if you give this project a try in your art room. Please be sure and tag me. Not only would I love to see but it also helps others find the details on the lesson.

 Just a peak at the foam core. I stressed that none should be visible from the front of the house.

 I would totally live in this colorful village!

Wouldn't you?! 

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In the Art Room: Claire West-Inspired Landscape Lesson

Now that my fourth graders have made their contribution to our school-wide collaborative (details to come, stay tuned! I'm STILL trying to figure out my life, y'all) and completed their sketchbooks and their first couple of sketching tasks, it's now time for them to move on to the art makin'! I have decided to kick off the school year with landscape for all of my students. I also decided that I wanted my kiddos to learn about contemporary artists (and it so happens, all female artists!). It's with that in mind that I introduce you to the lesson I'll be sharing with my fourth grade artists: Chalk Landscapes inspired by the artist Claire West!

These drawings are my teacher examples...I had so much fun creating them, I couldn't stop! You can see the process in this video I created to be shared with my students:

Now let's take a closer look at some of Claire's work...

 Isn't her work beautiful? I love the colors! They are so rich and stunning. I knew chalk would be a good way for my students to capture that incredibly rich hue. 

I also love how her work really shows depth. What a great way for my students to learn about the horizon line, back-, middle- and foreground.

 Here are the supplies we will be using for this lesson:

* Chalk I really like Faber-Castell's chalk. It's vibrant and rich with no fillers or junk. They are my fave!

* Liquid Starch! The magical ingredient behind this amazing process.

* 11" X 17" Paper I went ahead and cut an inch off the normal 12" X 18" paper so that matting and framing will be easier in the future.

* Paint! This will come later...but we'll use a variety of colors of tempera paint. 

 This project will probably take us some time. A couple of classes for the chalk and starch...and maybe one class for painting. I'll keep you posted on our progress.

Why I am so smitten with the starch trick: no messy chalk pastel dust! No need to spray with hairspray or a fixative! No smearing! I'm so in love. Big shout out to my good friend Jennifer Avarado for sharing this trick with me.

 More landscape lessons for my other grade levels are in the works so stay tuned. I'll keep you posted here and on my YouTube channel. 

 Until then, happy landscaping!

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