Georgia O'Keeffe Inspired Student Art

 

I love art and allowing my students to be creative and get the opportunity to become exposed to different artists and different mediums. At the end of the school year we have a little more time for studying art! This is a fun lesson I have done with my 3rd graders in the past and my 5th graders. They all enjoy learning about Georgia O'Keeffe and creating their own O'Keeffe inspired flower.

 

I created a Power Point presentation with some of O'Keeffe's background information and examples of her paintings (I included the realm of her work, not just her famous flower pieces).

 

Materials:

• 10x10 piece of white paper
• crayons
• water color paint
• construction paper, assorted colors (if you want to put a backing on the painting)

I projected a few of O'Keeffe's flower paintings for my students to reference as they created their painting.

 

First, they drew in pencil a flower (I love how some drew a more abstract close up of a flower).

 

Next, they took crayon and drew over their pencil marks.

 

Then, they started to paint.

 

I told them to leave no white on the page. Of course I had some students who had a difficult time, but I think it is due to the fact that we don't allow them opportunities to be creative. Eventually, they were able to move past their fear and create beautiful pieces of artwork.

 

 

Dot Art!

I wish we had some sort of art program for students at my school.  It is such a shame kids don't get the opportunity to be creative and explore the different forms of art in school. When my students do work on art projects, they struggle with letting the creativity flow. They are so consumed with their art not being "perfect" etc.

There is a great picture book title "The Dot" by Peter Reynolds explores a child's difficulty with creativity. If you don't have a copy of the book you can show your students the animated version of the book on Youtube.

After watching the video, my students drew a single dot somewhere on their paper. From there they let their creativity flow and drew lines, shapes, whatever their heart desired. They struggled a bit at first, but soon they were drawing! The one rule they had was they couldn't use a pencil, only the marker. This allowed them to get away from things having to be "perfect."

Here is what you will need:

• white paper 9x9
• black felt tip pens 
• watercolors
• construction paper (to frame the final piece of artwork)

Stocking Stuffers with Thoughtful Notes

I wanted to have my students create something festive for the holiday. My one criteria was it had to be quick and easy! Time was running out...story of my life! I grabbed this idea from Thank God It's First Grade.  She has everything you need (the template for the stocking and the note cards) on her page and it's free! Isn't she amazing! The students make their own stockings and they stuff each other's stockings with warm, thoughtful, friendly notes. I LOVED the idea and was keeping my fingers crossed my students would as well.

Even the big kids like activities like this! I seriously have the sweetest group of students ever!

I went ahead and photocopied the stocking on red and white card stock. I didn't have envelopes handy in the classroom, so I had the kids make envelopes out of green construction paper. They wrote their names on the front and some even decorated their envelope. Next year, I will definitely give them more time so they can decorate. I plan on rolling this out the beginning of December, not two weeks before we head off to winter break. This way they will have a few weeks to write each other notes.

On Friday, during our holiday celebration, they will get their stockings and read all the wonderful notes their classmates wrote to them.

Of course next year, I will have a much prettier display! It was crunch time! I tore down some posters and slapped these babies up.

Winter Landscape Art!

This was such a fun and simple art project! I was in a pickle...last Friday I was told that I needed to have my students submit winter artwork this Thursday to decorate the auditorium (our winter performance is next week). We were asked to create artwork that didn't have to do with Christmas, but had a winter feel to it. Since my mind wasn't in a creative art mode, I scoured the web and found this great project via Laura over at Painted Paper.

Here's what you'll need:

• 12x8 white paper
• Assortment of tempera paint
• Scrap paper (brown, white, and black)
• Glue
• 14x9 black or white paper (used for the "frame")

You'll need a couple days to work on the project. The first day was solely devoted to painting the background and allowing it to dry.

I used dark purple, dark blue, and white paint. In order to make different shades of blue and purple my students added white paint to create different tints.

I love how every work of art is unique! Some students chose to create harsh colors and lines, whereas, others blended the lines, using softer colors.

They learned what "tint" meant and how they can create many different shades just by adding white paint.

Tear art! Using white construction paper, students tore a horizontal piece for the blanket of snow on the ground. Then they tore out trees/branches with brown or black construction paper. After that, they added snow to the tree branches.

I even had some creative kiddos create snowmen on their winter landscape scene. Love it! I decided to frame their artwork with a larger piece of black or white construction paper (I was going to only use black, but ran out, so I let my students choose). I like how the "frame" finishes it up nicely.

 

A lot of times art is thrown on the back burner, due to all the other academic areas that must get covered within the year. As I roamed around my room and saw how involved and how much my students enjoyed creating their masterpieces, it made me reflect on how I definitely have to try harder to incorporate time for them to be creative into the year.