Huichol Mexican Folk Art Inspired Hearts - Grade 2

The second grade lesson that I designed this year for Valentine's Day takes its inspiration from the Mexican folk art Huichol -- or yarn painting. Students use heart tracers to obtain a basic shape, then work from the outside in using glue to attach the yarn to the cut-out heart shape. The hearts are then mounted to square papers. Keeping with the three-heart theme as the younger grades, the students make three yarn-painting hearts which are mounted together on a larger paper.

Here is a student example:

Valentine Hearts Inspired By Stained Glass - Grade 1

The second heart-themed lesson I designed using the simple technique of tissue paper squares applied to white paper to resemble stained glass. I did not try this particular lesson with students yet, however similar lessons (see Flames of the Holy Spirit) have worked well with this age group. The lesson could also be done with kindergarten with no changes made to it.

This lesson uses the same size paper as the Pollock-inspired hearts lesson, which makes it easy to prep for and display if done together. In addition to white paper (3 x 5"), it calls for construction paper (3 x 5"), cut tissue paper, mod podge or elmer's glue, heart tracers, scissors, pencils, and glue to mount the heart frames. Unlike the painting lesson, this one will need more time to dry, especially if using mod podge.

Step 1: Cut out the three frames in the same way as the Pollock-inspired lesson. Set them aside.

Step 2: Collage the tissue paper over the entire surface of the white paper, overlapping colors and allowing no white gaps. Make three papers this way.

Step 3: When the collaged white papers are totally dry, mount the heart frames on top. Then mount these on larger paper.

The final result should look something like this:

Valentine Hearts Inspired By Pollock - Kindergarten

So in honor of Valentine's Day I wanted to come up with some new art lessons that used hearts (especially in groups of three), but in a less traditional sense. Typically when I see Valentine's themed art lessons the hearts are used to create shapes in animals, so I wanted to do hearts, but also incorporate artists or skills, techniques, etc. I also wanted to try out these lessons on actual students and had some volunteers both in private lessons and in classrooms.

The first lesson I will share is this one designed for kindergarten, but suitable for pre-school or first grade with some accommodations for younger learners who may not have developed sufficient skill with scissors yet.
In this lesson the materials used were: construction paper, marbles, tempera paints in primary colors, hear tracers, pencils, scissors and glue.

Step 1: In separate trays (I used the trays from microwave entrees) place the different paint colors and several marbles. Give each student a similar tray with a piece of paper that fits snugly in it (about 3 x 5"). Have students rotate between the three colors. They select one paint covered marble each. drop it on their papers in their trays and roll the marble around. Repeat with each paint color. Then repeat the process again on two more pieces of paper in different colors than the first.

Step 2: While the paint dries read a color-related story or a story about Jackson Pollock (the artist of inspiration). The color-related story I read was White Rabbit's Color Book by Alan Baker. It is a cute story about how the primary colors mix to form secondary colors and how all three combined make the color brown.

Step 3: By the time all students have washed the paint from their hands and listened to the story the painted papers should hopefully be well on their way to being dry. As they continue to dry distribute three more (3 x 5") papers, heart tracers, pencils and scissors. Demonstrate how to fold the paper down the middle, trace half a heart on the fold, cut while folded, and open up to reveal an open heart frame. Provide extra help with proper cutting, especially for younger learners.

Step 4: With the painted papers fully dry, have students glue their three cut-out frames over their three marble paintings. This will hide some of the paintings, but explain that this is okay and what is to be expected. Then mount the three finished framed heart painting on a larger sheet of paper either vertically or horizontally, whichever you prefer.

Here are some samples made by three and four year-old students:

Grade 3 - Tinted Snowmen Paintings

Also while substituting in an art room I had the opportunity to re-introduce a painting lesson that the regular art teacher felt wasn't quite working. He asked me to "see what I could do with it." He didn't need to ask me twice because I love when this happens and I can try my hand at teaching the same project with my own twist to it. I looked at the students work in progress and saw that many of them were having trouble developing the form (roundness) of their snowmen paintings while also dealing with the new concept of painting with tints (white with a little color added). The snowmen were coming out flat looking and either really orange or really blue -- the tinting wasn't the least bit subtle.
As an inspiration point the students had already listened to the book "Snowmen at Night" by Caralyn Buehner. In this book the snowmen are illustrated with beautifully rendered orange and blue tints to give them a round appearance. This was the look we were going for and what I needed to help the students achieve to an extent.

So, rather than just keep going with the snowmen paintings as they were, I reminded the students that the great thing about paint (tempera in this case) was that once it was dry you could always paint over it to rework something that wasn't quite where you wanted it to be -- such as their snowmen. They all agreed that they needed some more help with the concept of tinting and were happy to paint back over their existing work.

My demonstration snowman

The demonstration I gave focused on the use of wet-in-wet painting techniques, which was the opposite of what they had been using. They had been mixing their tints separately and then applying the paint. I showed them how to start with an all white snowman shape and add just little bits of color at a time using the direction of the brush stroke while blending the tint to create the roundness of the form. They were impressed enough at the result to give their own paintings another try. While there is still room for improvement the comparative results from how they first looked are astounding. Several students were able to get their tints to seem less stark and even to achieve some roundness to the form. Below are a few examples:


Now, since the students reworked their previous attempts, for the most part they did not get beyond making just the snowmen. But I thought it would be nice to leave a completed example for the regular art teacher along with some notes on my ideas for the assignment. I envisioned the snowmen interacting in some way with details added with colored pencil. And the ground would be painted white. While the paint was still wet, I sprinkled iridescent glitter onto it to give it a little sparkle like new fallen snow. I also included in the note that if he tried this assignment with another class, I would do several practice sphere paintings using white and the tinting colors before attempting the snowmen. The students would benefit from the practice and feel a greater sense of accomplishment with the final project if they could "play" with the idea first.

This is the sample I left for the regular art teacher.

Grade 2 - Step-by-step Turkey Drawings

With the success I had experienced with teaching the first graders how to draw turkeys, I felt the second graders could also have fun with a similar drawing lesson. So, I decided to show them how to draw a slightly different turkey. This time I encouraged the students to layer their crayon colors to give them a more realistic and more textured appearance. The students had a lot of fun and were excited to learn how to draw the turkeys. Unlike the younger students, the second graders took a lot longer with the drawings and many did not get to finish the coloring in of their images. Here are some of the fantastic results:

Grade 1 - Step-by-Step Turkey Drawings

Now, I know that it is a little late for Turkey Day, but I just have to share these super cute turkey drawings that were made by first graders when I was subbing for an art teacher before Thanksgiving. There was no lesson plan left, so I decided to teach the students to draw turkeys and added the possibilities of using patterns on the feathers and using non-traditional turkey colors. This was an impromptu lesson that I had never tried before, but the students really had fun with it and were excited to learn that they could draw turkeys themselves. The results were too cure to not share.

Father's Day Card Project Elementary Level

So, I am still in the process of going through and editing tons of photos from the recent Sacred Art Show and sadly they are not ready for posting yet. In the meantime, I will share with you a lesson that I did while subbing last school year. This is NOT my lesson, but rather it belongs to a fabulous art teacher that I subbed for. The lesson was taught to multiple grades (because it is great as a sub plan this time of year). I think I did it with grades 1, 2 and 3.

This sample uses scrap booking paper for the tie and real buttons on the collar.
Note the tickets and photos peeking out of the pockets. The inside label bears the initials of the artist (me).

The lesson is to make a card that looks like a shirt and tie set (traditional dad gift). The card starts with a piece of 18 X 6 construction paper that is pre-folded in half to make a 9 x 6" card. Then at the folded end, you cut in about 1/2" down on the side and about 1" in (about 2 little kid fingers wide). These two flaps are folded inward at angle to make the shirt collar. Glue them down. The tie is added with plain or patterned paper (using a tracer or eye-ball it). You can also make a western-type tie or bow tie. The shirt details are added with marker or crayon (details on tie can be added, too). Real buttons can be added to the collar or shirt if you have them or they can be drawn on. It is best to use a hot-glue gun to attach the buttons.

The shirt flips upward to reveal the inside of the card where you can add a written note.

Here are some more of the many samples I've made:

This sample is all construction paper (even the tie); patterns and details are all crayon.
There are still real buttons on the collar though and initials for the label.

This sample is all construction paper (even the tie); details are crayon and black marker. There are still real buttons on the collar though and initials for the label. The tie has a Spongebob theme.

This sample is all construction paper (even the tie) and the details are crayon and black sharpie again. This has the Western-theme though. No more real buttons, but still bearing the initials on the label.

Spring Quilling

While substitute teaching last week, I was asked by the art teacher to begin a quilling (filagree) assignment with the fifth graders. The idea was to start with a central design and work outward (most students did this). The design should be inspired by a floral motif. While most of these images will not immediately look like a floral motif, keep in mind they were only just started and probably will take at least another two hours before they are finished. But the tight coil was the most popular form for the students to make, so here they are:

Notice the layering of coils within and on top of each other.


A few students worked a little differently...