Australian Dry Environment Art

These gorgeous artworks are from a Year Two class I work with once a week. The teacher that implemented this lesson integrated it with a 'Wet and Dry Environments' unit of work and with a particular study of Australian deserts. 

It was completed in stages and as you can see, had a lovely 3D effect on the display wall. 

To start, students scribbled with desert colours on art paper. They then did a thin orange paint wash over the paper. When it was dry they scrunched it up, to achieve a dry arid land effect. 

To make the snake, they covered a piece of paper with lovely bright rich coloured crayons. A thin coat of black paint was then applied, and before it dried students scratched scribble marks with the end of their brush to reveal some colourful lines (crayon under the paint). 

Once dry, the snake was cut out and glued onto the background. The students did not glue it flat, instead, lifting sections and applying glue in random places to achieve the 3D effect. 

Maps and posers showing Australian deserts environments were displayed with the artworks.

This artwork would make an excellent accompaniment to the Aboriginal Dreamtime story 'The Rainbow Snake". 

Frog Life Cycle Hats

This week my students made a Frog Life Cycle hat. We had the role of presenting at our weekly assembly. These hats provide a fantastic way of combining a 'performance' style presentation with a showcase of our learning. I found the templates HERE

I demonstrated the entire activity before I handed out materials. I also showed some simple frog life cycle animations from YouTube to revise our learning on frogs. 

1. We coloured all the life cycle stages (this links in with our work on animals, information reports and explanations). 

We cut all the template pieces. I still have students learning to cut effectively, so this was a great fine motor activity as well. 

2. We glued the template pieces to make the frog face. 

3. We glued the life cycle pictures, and wrote about each stage on the hat band. 

4. I reminded students to glue the stage pictures close to the frog face, because the ends get trimmed off. 

5. Here are our hats ready for our assembly performance. 

My students LOVED making these hats. They were engaged, excited about their learning and it built anticipation for the upcoming assembly. 

Thank you so much for visiting my blog. I love that I can share some ideas from my classroom and connect with other teachers around the world!

- Mel 

Frog Paper Plate Craft

I am so excited to share these adorable frogs with you! These were made by a 2nd grade class I work with during the week. The teacher of the class is incredibly dedicated and passionate about her students  expressing their learning in creative ways. 

I do not have the program notes for this lesson as it was not my lesson. The teacher taught this lesson as part of a 'Wet and Dry Environments' unit of work. She developed the craft from ideas found on Pinterest. Do a search on Pinterest for 'Frog Paper Plate Craft' and you will get lots of ideas!

Inside each puppet mouth is a party blower for the tongue. The children LOVED them! 

Much time and consideration has gone into the display and presentation of the children's work, and they are so proud of their lovely classroom! 

Thanks so much for visiting!

Possum Magic Low Prep Craft

One day each week I have the role of supporting other teachers and students within their classrooms. It is a wonderful role and I feel very privileged to be able to spend the day with other teachers and be an active participant in their classroom and pedagogy.

The second grade classroom I visit is always a hive of activity and the classroom displays reflect the teacher's dedication and passion for education. I asked her if I could share some photos from her classroom. Here are some adorable possums her students made after reading Possum Magic by Mem Fox. 

Real foliage has been added to the line where each possum is attached - and the effect is well worth the additional effort.  

This low prep craft was made using paper plates painted with grey paint and template pieces. I do not know the location of the template pieces - perhaps try a google search. 

Hopefully these will inspire you to create some possum magic in your classroom too!

Seahorse Art Project

Here is a lesson I did in 2014. We did a directed drawing of a seahorse as part of a marine / ocean unit of work. I just directed the students to draw a seahorse using an illustration I found in a picture book - but if you need more step-by-step details, you may find one on Pinterest to assist. 

This lesson is a good example of one where your best laid plans end up changing. We used crepe paper scraps and water to achieve a sea textured background.

My beautiful students ended up experimenting with the crepe paper to find better ways to use it than I had planned. I demonstrated how to create the water effect with strips of paper, and they found that scrunching it, wetting it and dabbing it provided more 'watery' markings. Let your students be creative! They also asked for green paper to create seaweed, which was not in my planning, but I easily accommodated. 

I encouraged the students to fill their seahorse with patterns and fun colours. 

We drew and coloured in one session and did the messy background work to finish in the second session.  

In this photo below you can see that I purchased plastic plant pots to use as water tubs. They are big and have a solid firm base. With all that brush washing and tapping that happens, a solid container works best! 

If you would like my program notes, please find them in Google Drive HERE

To leave a comment on my blog, be sure to be signed into your Google account. 

Have a wonderful day! 

Rainbow Bird Artwork

Last term I did a visual arts lesson with my first graders using the Aboriginal story 'How the Birds got their Colours' as a stimulus. Mary Albert, the author is from the Bardi Language Group in Broome, Western Australia. 

The illustrations in the story are made by children from the same community. I have found that this book always captures the attention of my students and they love the illustrations. For art appreciation I always discuss how the illustrations have been made. We discuss painting in primary colours using a medium sized brush and what effect this has on the artwork. 

We talked about how the paint and brushes do not allow for much fine detail in the art - but how expressive, vibrant and energetic the pictures are. 

We also talk about cleaning our brushes between colours. This is a great art project to establish the classroom routine of using a colour palette and cleaning brushes appropriately. 

I talked the students through how to draw a parrot, using the image on the from cover as an example. We drew a large oval body, then added the semi-circle head followed by the other features and detail. After sketching, I invited students to paint their bird using the paint palettes of primary colours that I distributed. Once dry, we did a pale blue paint wash for the background. 

Here are some of the artworks from our classroom:

Crab Classroom Art Project

Here is an art lesson I did with my Year One class (first grade). We were only a few weeks into school and my students needed something relatively easy and straightforward. We were still learning classroom procedures and they were still getting to know me as their teacher. 

With these art projects, please keep in mind that I teach them for one day a week. I have just one hour to start, finish (and hopefully display) an artwork.

This crab artwork complemented our unit of work on 'water' and another on 'animals'. 

For the art appreciation section of my lesson, we talked about warm colours and viewed an artwork on the IWB. To do an art discussion with young students I find it easy to direct their attention to something clearly observable in the artwork - colour, line, shape, texture etc - and ask them specific questions about it. This encourages them to begin thinking about artworks and other artists. We gradually through the year can begin talking about art in a more abstract way, as they get used to talking and sharing. 

Here are the steps I drew for the directed drawing: 

And if you would like to see my program page for this lesson, find it at Google Drive 

 HERE