Here are a few quick pictures I took of some lessons we have done lately.

 We talked about India and did animal projects: Tigers- 5th grade, Festival Elephants 4th grade, Peacocks 3rd grade. You may have noticed that I post "I can " statements with all of my displays this year. It is easy to do and I have gotten lots of comments like- "I never knew art had standards or objectives." Now they know.

 First grade did an awesome job on this printmaking and drawing lesson. I made it in a two day process, day one we printed the three colors for the branch by rotating three times. Then we had time to practice drawing and coloring cardinals. The second day we redrew our cardinals together, then colored and decorated with candy canes and ornaments. I was so proud of them!

Fifth grade did oil pastel poinsettias. And unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the 4th grade 3D Candy Cane drawings or 2nd grades Winter animal portraits. (Then even had hats and scarves) lol

Spring Break- Catch up time!

Wow I am surprised how long it has been since I posted last. You all know how time flies, busy, busy.
Well it is now the last day of Spring Break and I am thinking about school tomorrow. I know I have plans ready but for the life of me I can't remember what they are. I guess I will find out tomorrow! lol Nothing better than putting work out of your mind so completely that you aren't even worried about it.

Here are a few pictures of what I have been doing lately in my elementary art room. Or not in my room, as you can see.
Hope you enjoy your Spring Break as much as I did.
Peace-

Field trip to KC Symphony with K-2 grades.

Tried a lesson I saw online. Please forgive me I can't find my original source for this idea. I decided Pinterest has a major flaw when you can't go back and find what you want when you need it. *sigh*

Onomatopoeia! I have done this project for years with slight changes depending on the grade level. Always a big hit.










First grade self-portraits. So darn cute!

4th grade problem solving. "Make a 3D form that will hold a book." They got as much newspaper as they wanted, glue, etc. But only one piece of masking tape as long as the table is wide per day.

Carnegie Art Center Leavenworth Area Art Show Mar. 9-30th.

Jump Rope for Heart! We had a former jump rope competitor as our double dutch expert!

And last but not least, our "guy" wedding shower for Coach. He is on his honeymoon during Spring Break, Jamaica!

Primary Time

Since we have been back from Winter Break my first graders have been reviewing the color wheel. We made small drawings using only the primary colors.

I made an example to show the kids how you can mix together crayons, unlike marker, to get secondary colors. But I noticed some kids were reluctant to mix them. It's like they were worried they wouldn't like it. Or it would be messy.

Then there were the brave souls who let it all out! In fact they do all of their work in a heavy hand. They don't hold back. I have also never heard they say "I can't" or "I don't know what to draw."

I love them all!

Peace-

Cowboy/Cowgirl Bandannas

Pattern. First grade has been doing pattern lately in class and in art. Here are the many different designs they came up with just using an old marker lid for circles, a small piece of cardboard, and black and white paint.

Peace-

Animal Puppets by 1st Grade

I made “mitten” style puppets with my three 1st grade classes last week and we had a fun time.

		Puppets VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Our first day was spent drawing lots of practice puppet drawings. On my overhead I drew several mitten shapes and added the facial feathers to make each animal. The kids followed along drawing on their own paper. After I did the basic- cow, cat, dog. tiger, etc. I had the students give me suggestions of more to do. I got great ideas like wolf, crab, turtle, owl, and even a platypus! (Thanks to Disney’s Phineas and Ferb) I think all together we had 30 animals.
Doing our “practice” day gave everyone great ideas and when we went to pick our paper for our animals it went very smoothly. NO hesitation of “I don’t know . . . “ they spoke up and said their choice quickly. We spent the rest of the class folding, cutting and gluing the basic shapes for the faces.
Next class we brought out the smaller paper and scrap box and went to it! I showed them a couple of tips on how to make the ears pop up and hold their shape, as well as, accordion folded pieces for pig noses and to cut curly Q pig tails.
Another fun day and lots of cute puppets. I had to arm wrestle a few of the kids to get them to let me keep them to hang in our hall.

I Just Love 1st Grade!

I like to do all sorts of "portraits" with the kids. Some are self portraits and others are just portraits of others. A couple of weeks ago 1st grade did their latest self-portraits. I just love these! Of course I know these kids and their personalities really come out in their work. 

When I go over the steps for placing the eyes, and other features I make a BIG deal about it. On practice day we draw our oval or egg shape for the face then I say "When you are done drawing the oval, put your hand here." I show them my hand is on my forehead. Then I start my talk about how "my hand is on my _________ (forehead) and behind your forehead is ____________ (your brain). Now are my eyes in my forehead? (no) So where should we draw them? Down towards the center."

I go on and make all the features a similar experience and we literally feel where they are. They get a kick out of Mrs. Zwahl doing all this silly stuff, again. But we have fun and you can see the results.

NOTE: You wonder why I do this? We don't have mirrors for them to use. Never have had any and some how we get by........ :)

When I told them I was going to use my BIG marker to write their names on the bottom they thought that was too cool! Such a big marker!

 I just love 1st grade!

Peace,

Just a Few More

When this post gets published I will still have another week of school left. Now I know a lot of you don't get out until June but here in the Midwest that is late. But since construction was running late we didn't start until Sept. 7th, last fall. Between cutting inservice days, and adding time to the end of each day we made up the three weeks we needed to get our required days in for the year.

Starting about April 1st I started thinking June would never get here. Now as I write this it's finally May. My hope is it will fly by fast. But those darn kids don't want to do much this time of year. Testing is done, the weather has warned up and stayed warm and they are feeling it. Hope we can all survive each other.....

Here are a couple last shots of what we have done the last month.

1st Grade

1st Grade

3rd Grade Letters

4th grade X-Ray hands in pastels