Snowman Profiles

I'm always trying to think of new ways to encourage my younger students to draw big and fill up their entire paper.  I guess because they are so small, their frame of reference is also a bit small.  Every kid loves snowmen, right?!

For this project, I demonstrated on the board how to draw a LARGE capital "B" or "R" on the paper vertically (this will serve as the face and body of the snowman).  Then students added a sideways triangle inside the face to be the carrot nose.  Next, students painted the triangle nose orange, the face and body white, and then added more white to the side to be falling snow.  We put the artwork to dry.

The next time they came to class, we used oil pastels to add the details for the eyes, mouth, arm, scarf, and hat!

Winter Tree Silhouettes

In the spirit of the season, I let my 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders paint a "winter tree silhouettes."  We live in Alabama, and rarely get snow, so the kids get quite excited about even mentioning it!

This project was really quick and easy (most kids finished it in one 30 minute class period).  First, they drew a tree silhouette and filled it in with black crayon.  Afterwards, they painted snow on the ground with white tempera paint and added some to their branches and some falling.

"Dia de los Muertos"

"Dia de los Muertos" is a very important Mexican holiday that is celebrated in Mexico and parts of the United States every year on November 2nd.  In Engllish, "Dia de los Muertos" is translated to Day of the Dead.  During this day, people celebrate by remembering loved one that have passed away.  There are many traditional ways of celebrating; some of which include building altars in remembrance of loved ones, dressing up as skeletons, dancing, eating special foods (like Pan de Muerto), a procession or parade, a name call of the deceased, and decorating gravesites with flowers and marigolds.  Often, people will also tell stories retelling fond memories of loved ones lost. 

Another big activity is making sugar skulls and using them to decorate.  A sugar skull is a skull made out of sugar that is decorated with icing.  The sugar skull image has spread through the culture of "Dia de los Muertos" to include costumes, artwork, and more.  In this lesson, students drew a sugar skull with silver sharpe on black construcion paper to create a stark contrast of lights and darks.

Every year, I attend the Day of the Dead festival at Bare Hands art gallery in downtown Birmingham.  It is a fabulous event with food, drinks, dancing, costumes and loads of wonderful art!

Aboriginal Snakes

I also did an art lesson based on the Aboriginal people with my older students (3rd, 4th, and 5th grade).  One way Aboriginal people present animals in their artwork is through their "X-ray" style paintings.  This is where you can see details inside the body of the animal just as a doctor would see the details of your bones on an x-ray.  After students finished drawing their snake in oil pastel, they added Aboriginal symbols to the background to finish their composition.

Originally, I got this idea from Art Projects for Kids, but I changed it up a little by having my students add symbols to their background!

Aboriginal Boomerangs

The Aboriginal people are the indigineous people, or first inhabitants, of the continent of Australia and their descendants.  They rich cultural heritage is very interesting and includes some beautiful artwork.  Traditionally, their artwork references stories from their "Dreamtime" as well as many dots, animals, and Aboriginal symbols.

In this art lesson, students first painted an Aboriginal boomerang with watercolors, then they added stamps of Aboriginal symbols.  To finish the composition, students filled their artwork with dots.  The examples above are from two of my second grade students!