Kindergarten City at Night Collages

Kindergarten students created City at Night Collages using the massive amounts of scrap paper we've collected over the year.  They were first given random sized rectangle scraps and were asked to create each building with a different shape.  Next, they added windows with black and yellow paper to represent lights on or off.  Lastly, they added a night sky with white crayon.  We were going to add a little more detail in the buildings, but I could tell they were getting bored with cutting and gluing windows, so we just skipped the details.  As I look at the artwork collectively, I don't think those details will be missed!

Thanks to Deep Space Sparkle for the great project inspiration!

3rd Grade Kandinsky Concentric Circles

Third grade students studied the art of Wassily Kandinsky, specifically his "Squares with Concentric Circles" painting.  This was a great fine motor skill exercise for the students, because of all the tearing they had to do.  The students first glued 6" square pieces of various colored construction paper onto 12x18" white paper.  They then took 6 more pieces of square paper, folded them in half, and tore half circles (to make a whole circle once opened) until they couldn't tear any more.  Starting with the largest rings (or partial rings), they glued the pieces on top of the original 6 squares, making sure to use ALL of the pieces.

Thanks to United Art & Education for the inspiration for this project!

Kindergarten Owls

Oh my goodness, these owls turned out so adorable!  Although it was tedious and time-consuming tearing the paper, the Kindergarten students were very patient and the results were well worth it...and great practice in developing fine motor skills!  On black paper, the students drew two ovals, one for the head and the other for the body.  Next, they tore quarter-size pieces of a variety of brown construction paper for the feathers.  Lastly, they added eyes, a beak, and feet.  Check out the last picture for the artwork display. 

Thanks to Wallenpaupack North Primary School's Arsonia page for inspiring this project. 

1st Grade Story Quilts

This is a project I developed while studying to become an art teacher, and it quickly became one of my favorite projects to do because I get to know a little more about the students in the process!  The students learned about the artist Faith Ringgold and her painted story quilts.  After reading her book Tar Beach, the students came up with a memorable and true story about their lives and then drew a picture of that story without using words.  The students then used wallpaper sample scraps to create a "quilted" border.  I love hearing the students stories and seeing them transformed into an artwork!

1st Grade Picasso-Inspired Hands with Flowers