Art for Kids: Snowy Trees

Happy Sunday Afternoon!  I'm sitting here in my living room looking out at the beautiful February sunshine.  The funny thing is, this weekend we were forecasted to have the snowstorm to end all snowstorms...  grocery stores were rampaged.  Gas station lines were miles long.  Teachers and students alike were prepping for snow days this week.  It's now Sunday and I am looking out at bare ground and glorious sunshine.  I'm not sure if I should be disappointed or relieved.

As a type of precursor to this "snowpocolypse", my students completed their snowy tree art project this week and we finally got them on display.  They turned out beautifully...  each one is unique and the whole display is magical!

I often get my inspiration for classroom art from the internet.  While searching for a winter project, I came upon a photo of a project similar to the one you see above.  As I prepped for writing this post, I tried to search it out so that I could give the original poster credit and was unable to find it.

One of the things I love to do is find an original piece of art and try to figure out a way to make it accessible to my own students.  This means determining which medium to use with our limited resources and the step-by-step order for the project since we have limited time.  This project takes at least two sessions with drying time in between.

For this project we used these materials:
white card stock cut into 8 1/2 by 8 1/2 squares
white, blue, and black tempera or acrylic paint
sharpie markers
larger black permanent markers

Prep:
I cut the paper into the squares.
I put plates and paint brushes on each group table.  On the plates I put a dollop of white, blue, and black paint.

Step One:
Students paint the background by painting a white circular shape in the middle of their paper.  As students work out from the middle of the page, they mix blue into the edge of their white paint creating a light blue.  As they work out toward the edge of the paper, they continue to add blue until they are using pure blue.  At that point they start to add black to their blue to darken it and continue to work out until they work their way off of the page.  Many of my students went back in with white, after cleaning their brush,  to smoothed out and widen the middle circle.  We stopped at this point, cleaned up, and let the paintings dry.

Step Two:
Once the painting dry (later that day or days later) hand out the paintings, Sharpie markers, and bold tip permanent markers.  I demonstrated for my students, under the document camera, how to draw the curvy branches and fill in the trunk.

When I did this for my students, I modeled directly on the painted background.  The background was a bit more rough so students had to work more carefully.

Some students positioned their trees in the center of the page and others off to the side.  Both are beautiful!

Step Three:
The final step is to put "snowflakes" on the page.  provide one dollop of white paint for each group of about 4 students.  I happen to have corndog sticks that we used to make the tiny dots (pointed end) and the large dots (blunt end).  You could also use small dowels, toothpicks, the handle end of paintbrushes, etc.  The goal is to make sure the dots are random around the page.

The results were magical!  Every tree turned out just as unique as the artist who painted it.

I hope that this post has inspired you to create some magical winter trees with your students.  If you do, please share your pictures on Facebook and/or Instagram and tag LiteracyLovesCompany.  I'd love to see your beautiful pieces of art.

Thank you for visiting!

Stained Glass Selfies

Last week, I pulled out some pictures I had taken of my students toward the beginning of the school year and decided to use them for an art project to decorate our hall these last couple of weeks!

The project is actually quite easy if you have the materials.  For this project you will need:

1.  Transparency film.  My school actually had several boxes of these sheets gathering dust in a closet.  Now that many schools use document cameras, rather than overhead projectors, you might get lucky and find a box hiding away at your school!  You will need one sheet of film for each student.

 2.  Acrylic paint.  Nothing fancy, just several bright colors.

3.  Sharpie or other fine point permanent markers.  One for each student.  

4.  Plates to put paint on and Q-tips to use as paint brushes.
5.  Masking tape
6.  Photos of your students printed as full, 81/2 x 11, black and white sheets
7.  Plain white copy paper.  One for each student

Okay...  now that you have all of your materials, it is time for the fun to begin!  

It is always a great idea to try out the project yourself first.  This helps you plan your timing, work out any kinks, and it gives you a finish example to share with your students!  

I also always model for my students how to do the project.  for this project, first I showed students how to tape things down and trace their faces. 

PHASE 1

Step #1 - Hand out the photos to your students and after the giggling has subsided, have them tape them down to their desks or table.  Just a little tape on each corner will be fine.  This is just to keep the photo from shifting.  

Step #2 - Now, distribute the transparency sheets.  Students need to tape the transparency sheets over the top of their photographs.  I suggest just taping three of the corners, leaving one of the corners untaped.  This lets students slide the white copy paper between their photos and the transparency to check their tracing.  

Step #3 - Students are now ready to trace.  I always tell my students to look for and trace around the big shapes.  They shouldn't trace every hair and line.  They need empty spaces.  Anything that you want black, such as the pupils of the eyes, should be colored in with the Sharpie marker.  

PHASE 2

While students are tracing, I walk around and put blobs of paint on the plates at students' tables.  I usually put out two plates for a table of 4 with several choices of colors.  Along with the paints, give students several Q-Tips.  

Advice - I always tell my students to NOT mix the colors.  Only use the Q-tips for the colors they are for.  At the end of the project, when most students are done, I let students mix up the colors a bit for their backgrounds.  

Step #4 - without untaping the transparency film students begin using the Q-tips to paint in their shapes.  Students can use many different strokes:  dabs, swirls, contour lines, etc.  A suggestion is to use the darker colors first and let dry a bit before moving on.  The same for shapes that are directly next to each other; paint in one shape, let dry, then paint in the other shape.  If the paint is a bit dry, it is okay to go over the margins a bit.  This side of the painting is the backside.  When you turn the painting over, all of the marker lines will still show, so students shouldn't worry about covering the lines.  

Step #5 - Have the students add a background.  If you are going to let your students write something, remember that this is the backside of the painting and they will need to write anything in reverse for it to appear correct when displayed.

Step #7 - Let paintings dry.
Step #8 - Display the paintings in a window or on a white background for the colors to really POP!

My students really enjoyed this project!  Because of timing,  we only did the artwork, but I can see how this could lend itself to writing about themselves at the beginning of the year.  Another idea is to take the pictures on the first day of school and save them.  Bring them out at the end of the school year and have students write about how they have changed during the year.

Whether you plan on doing this project just for the sake of art or to integrate it into writing it will make a wonderful display and keepsake for your students!

I hope that this art idea is one you can add to your "toolbox".  If you have any questions or ideas for integrating this project into other areas of the curriculum, I'd love to hear from you!  Just leave your comment below in the comment section.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you will consider following me on Bloglovin, Facebook, and Instagram for more  art, lesson, and classroom idea posts!

Guest Posting for Minds-in-Bloom

I'm so excited to be guest posting for Rachel Lynette over at Minds-in-Bloom!  I know most of you are either already out enjoying the summer, busy packing up your classroom, or counting down the days!  But it is never to late (or to early)  to think about ways to enhance your curriculum with art.  I hope you'll take a moment to hop on over to Minds-in-Bloom and read about my ideas for 5 simple ways to integrate the arts into your daily curriculum!  

Be sure to visit the Literacy Loves Company blog later this week for a post on "Stained Glass Selfies", another great, simple, integrating art idea for you to use in your classroom!  

Have a great day!  

Make Math FUN! Add a Splash of Art!

Hi There!

Today I want to share with you a couple of ways that I integrated art into my geometry instruction this last quarter.  We were just at the beginning of our geometry instruction and were learning about lines.  This day's lesson was about parallel, perpendicular, and intersecting lines.

I wanted to find some line art for students to locate these types of lines from.  I could have drawn my own, but to save time, I just went to the internet.  I Googled "Geometric Line Art" and found a ZILLION different options, but for this activity, I chose this one:

During my instruction, students took notes in their math journals and drew examples of each of the types of lines.  I then paired them up and had them get out highlighters.

The instructions were to take turns finding parallel, perpendicular, and intersecting lines.  I also asked them to locate right, acute, and obtuse angles.  If you had already studied triangles, you could also have them search for types of triangles.  Basically, students played an "I Spy..." game.

I handed out protractors for students to use as they searched for different angles.

Students were quite engaged with this task!  At the end of their work time, as a check-in, we met on the carpet and discussed which types of lines and angles were easiest to find, which were more difficult, and their conjectures about why. 

We usually have art on Friday so, in order to extend our learning of lines and angles, our art focus on that Friday was a geometric art project.  I posted my example along with some questions that morning so that students would start thinking about the project and to build a bit of anticipation.  

The only prep I had to do was to cut up some construction paper into different random geometric shapes and locate enough black markers and protractors for each of my students.  Easy Peazy!  Oh...  and have an idea of the vocabulary I wanted students to interact with:

•line

•line segment

•ray

•intersecting

•parallel

•perpendicular

•right angle

•obtuse angle

•acute angle

•triangle

•square

Students were asked to get out crayons and rulers.  

Not only was this an art project about lines and angles, but it was also a lesson in following directions, which some of my students are struggling with right now.  

As I gave verbal cues, students drew the type of line, angle, or shape I asked for.  They used their rulers and Sharpie markers for bold black lines.  We decided that a "line" would go from one side of their shape to the other.  A ray would start on the page and go off one side, and a line segment would not touch either side.   You will want to make this clear ahead of time.  

When the drawing of the lines and shapes was completed, students used crayons to color in their shapes, but any medium could be used: markers, colored pencils, paint.  The directions for this phase of the project were that you could not use the same color to fill in any "adjacent" shapes, and we discussed what "adjacent" means. 

 When the projects were completed, for a quick assessment of the project, students could share/exchange with their peers and try to find the different lines, angles, and shapes.  

The completed art pieces were collected and I made a colorful bulletin board to display them.  

Add caption

Looks a bit like stained glass, doesn't it?  

I like interactive bulletin boards, so I added questions to encourage students and parents who passed by to stop and interact with our art work.

This ended up being a great math and art experience for my students and it supported my opinion that integrating art into math doesn't have to be painful!  It helped my students build their math vocabulary, practice locating shapes and determining angles, and also introduced some new math words to my class.  As an added bonus, students practiced the skill of following verbal directions.  

I hope that this has inspired you to add a bit of art to your math curriculum!  If you are interested in more great ways to integrate art in your classroom, follow my Literacy Loves ~Art Pinterest board!  

Thanks for visiting!  

End of the Year Sprint: testing, celebrations, organization, and TpT

Hi All!
I've been having a hard time finding the time to keep up with my blog.  I'm sure you know the feeling!

With the end of the school year quickly approaching it seems like there is some major event at every corner.  Last week we had open house.  It was nice to see the parents interacting with their children in such positive ways.  It was even better to have a clean classroom.  I love teaching fourth grade...  most of my kiddos really know how to clean!

Next week is our volunteer appreciation celebration.  At our school we have a "volunteer tea".  I'm going to be making pink lemonade cupcakes for my volunteers again this year.  If you missed my mention of this last post click here.

 We've just about finished up our state testing.  I only have a couple of kiddos still working on it.  So proud of my class!  We worked really hard and reached our goal!  To celebrate, I took the class to our Creativity Studio for creativity time.  I set up a few stations and students were free to choose whatever they wanted to do.  Most of the boys chose Kapla blocks.  It was fun to watch them work and solve design problems together.

I found out I am moving classroom next year...  actually I requested the move.  I really needed an opportunity to clean out the "stuff" I've been collecting the last four years.  It gives me a reason to purge.  I've started bringing home containers of files from my filing cabinet to sort through.  It is amazing how much I DON'T use that I have had stored for so long.  Everything is online these days.  I found these great ideas on Pinterest:

These organization ideas from "Kindergarten Lifestyle"

These suggestions from "Teaching My Friends"

Plus...  I think I have a book on organizing for the end of the year somewhere in my classroom... I'll probably find it when I'm packing up.

I'm one of those teachers that has a hard time getting out at the end of the year and I go in a week or more early to set up.  At our school we have to pack "EVERYTHING" so that the summer cleaning crew can come in and do the floors.  I appreciate the clean room, but the packing is such a hassle.

If you have any useful tips, please let me know!

I've recently put out two new products that I am really excited about and am working on a set of "CCSS Aligned Daily Journal Prompts".

See it at my TpT store.  

See it at my TpT store.  

So, I continue my mad sprint to June 17th: teaching until the end, enjoying my students, and organizing for a successful start this fall.  I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to the slower pace of summer.

Thanks for visiting!