Beautiful Oops, first grade

Beautiful Oops is an inspiring book for young artists, encouraging "happy accidents." The book is filled with could-be disasters in the art room - stained, torn, wrinkled, ripped paper - that transform into magical works of art, using just a little creative thinking. It was a fun activity for early in the year - we loosened up and had fun with our torn newspaper! We learned about organic shapes and their irregular, curved or uneven sides - these shapes don't have to follow rules like the geometric shapes do. Clouds, wiggly worms, and puddles are great examples of organic shapes. After reading the book and choosing our scrap, we practiced a bit by tracing our scrap on paper and sketching our plan. The second week we painted the actual scrap and finally we mounted our work and added a title. Such a fun creative thinking project - thanks Barney Saltzberg for a great book!

Unicorn Oops

Swordfish deep down

Meat Oops ( love this so much!)

The Beautiful Oops house

Pizza Oops

Rainbow Oops

Fish Oops

Loose tooth Oops - ha!

Pond Oops

Color Teapot oops

The little Oops house

The wold oops

Kindergarten Owls - solving a mystery

This activity is always so much fun and I love seeing the expressive, unique owls each student creates. We start with a mystery drawing, where I give clues and the students draw along and try to figure out the mystery from the clues - it is a great way to build drawing confidence in these young artists. More on mystery drawings at the bottom of this post!

Once we solve the mystery, students experiment with lines and patterns to show texture, as well as trying out and comparing different drawing/coloring tools. I also encourage students to make fun and creative choices with color and detail at this stage - reminding them that they are artists who get to decide how they want things to look. While we are working on this, we talk about some scientific connections such as the nocturnal lifestyle of owls. Most students are familiar with this and love sharing what they know as we color away.

Once the drawings are complete, we have a class discussion about the importance of a title and how a title can help explain what is happening in an artwork. We share a lot of ideas for descriptive words for the setting and the mood and the owl's appearance.

 If you're interested in trying out my mystery drawings, I have two sets available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store - the owl is in the first set and my second set, called "Mystery Drawings Round 2," has five new subjects. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mrs-Knights-Smartest-Artists

5th grade - Names in Neon

Fifth graders have been creating monochromatic tempera paintings we are calling "Names in Neon," since they resemble the glow of a neon sign. We can change the value of a color (hue) by adding white (tint) or black (shade). Lesson idea from the Crayola website. Teacher tip - keep your hues in a separate tray from the white and black mixing tray.