Variations of Painting

For this project, we got to learn about painting with different objects besides a paintbrush.  Each student got the chance to practice stamping and smearing with a carrot, a piece of celery, an apple, and a spoon.  After practicing, each student got a fish template, and could use the four objects to stamp and smear on their fish.  We then glued a googly eye so the fish had a face.  On the bottom of the piece of construction paper, we had to write down the four items we used to paint, and four other items that we could've used instead of the carrot, celery, apple, and spoon.

An extension activity for painting could be to use their hands and fingers to paint animals.  Students could use their whole hand to create a small bird, and use a paintbrush to add details, such as a tree branch to sit on and a face and wings, or students could also use their finger tips to create different colored and shaped flowers.

Examples at:
http://dalimoustache.blogspot.com/2012/04/hyacinths.html
http://www.artsonia.com/museum/art.asp?id=40015797&artist=1060709&gallery=y


Here is the bulletin board we created to display the students' artwork:

Stamping

In this lesson, we got to create stamps out of a Styrofoam rectangle.  We learned about pattern, and created patterns using lines and shapes.  To create the patterns on the Styrofoam, we just drew it on the rectangle using a pencil.  After that, we used a paint roller and rolled paint onto the Styrofoam.  Then, we pressed the rectangle, paint side down, onto our construction paper.  For the bottom stamp, we got to create a different one, with symbols that are important to us.  I created an airplane, to represent my love of travelling, a volleyball, to represent that I play volleyball at NSU, and a stick-person family and dog, to represent my family and dog!

A few extension activities for stamping could be to use different objects to stamp with.  Students could use an empty toilet paper roll, and make slits on one end to create fireworks.  Also, students can use a marshmallow to stamp a shamrock to represent St. Patrick's Day.  One last one could be to use a balloon with blue and green paint to create mini Earth's while talking and learning about Earth Day.

Dr. Seuss 3-D Mini Creatures

For this project we listened to the book Oh, The Places You'll Go! by Dr. Seuss, and we viewed different imaginary creatures that Seuss created in many of his books.  Then, we got to create our own imaginary creature, and first drew it out on paper.  We learned about foreground, middleground, and background, and we created a scene by adding or drawing items in each of the distances.  Lastly, we got to create our drawn creature out of Play-Doh, and added them to the scene.

An example of an extension activity could be to have the students choose a type of landscape, such as desert or tundra, and create a landscape using different colored construction paper.  They would focus on foreground, middleground, and background, and have different aspects and characteristics of that landscape in each distance.  This is great for teaching students what different landscapes look like and their main characteristics.

1st Grade, 1st Grade What Do You See?

For this project we focused on the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Billy Martin Jr.  We each got an animal template and we used different colored and patterned paper to cover the template with.  We then cut it out and glued the animal to a piece of colored construction paper.  At the bottom, we wrote about what animal we saw and a few characteristics of that animal.

Another project we could do relating to this book could be to create animal masks from paper plates.  The students can color their paper plates, and add different colored and patterned paper to create the mouth and nose, and finally cut holes for the eyes.  They would then punch two holes, one on each side of the paper plate, and tie a string through the holes.  The students could then wear the mask and act out a few characteristics of the animal they created.

Wassily Kandinsky

For this project we learned and focused on the painting styles of Wassily Kandinsky.  We dipped a sponge into different colors of paint and created a rainbow.  We then cut the rainbow out and waited for it to dry, and in the meantime we painted, using either a sponge or paintbrush, a background for the rainbow.  After everything was dry we glued the rainbow to the background.

An extension project could be to focus on the style of Kandinsky's painting Yellow-Red-Blue (pictured below).  Students can draw bold lines across their paper, and work on painting each small space or geometric shape created by the lines a different color.

Kandinsky's Yellow-Red-Blue:

Animal Pinch Pot

For this lesson, we learned how to create pinch pots out of clay.  We had to get rid of all the air bubbles in the clay and then shape the clay in a sphere.  Then we pressed our thumb into the middle of the ball of clay and pull out while we shape the outside of the clay with our fingers.  We learned about additive and subtractive, which are adding pieces of clay and/or carving out of the clay, and we had to use one of each techniques while creating an animal from our pinch pots.

An extension activity could be to create piggy banks out of clay.  The students would also have to create a type of pinch pot by opening creating an opening in the center of the clay, but then they would have to close off the top by adding a slab of clay and creating a slit at the top to put in change.  They can do the same concept as we did in this project by turning their piece of clay into an animal, so the students still learn about additive and subtractive techniques.

Example:
 

Crayon Resist with Monet

In this project we recreated Claude Monet's Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies.  We started by drawing the bridge, clouds, water lilies and flowers with crayon, and after that we used watercolor paint to paint in the background.  We used mainly warm colors to draw with crayons and we painted with cool colors.  We had to use a lot of water to the paint in order to get a gradient and faded effect.

Monet created a lot of paintings of water, with flowers and trees and buildings or rocks reflecting in the water.  To get students to practice reflection, students could create a body of water and choose to draw something that is reflecting in the water.