Over the February break, I was luck enough to take a little trip to Washington D.C. I adored seeing the pandas at the National Zoo and they inspired this lesson.

Last year, after teaching how to use shading to make a more realistic picture ,I had my 5th graders work on a still life. This yeat they got to try their hand at shading a panda. I think they did a wonderful job! They used tempra paint for the panda, and chalk pastels for the bamboo background.

I saw this lesson on another blog ( I don't remember which one, forgive me) but it was done with regular crayons on white paper. I think the construction paper crayons on black paper add an extra punch! The 1st graders loved this project.

Back around Valentine's day, my 3rd graders studied the art work of Jim Dine. We used his heart themed work as inspiration for these oil pastel pictures. What a lovely way to say "happy Valentine's Day".

These great geckos were done by my 5th graders. I got the idea from the Usborne Art Ideas book (http://www.amazon.com/Usborne-Complete-Book-Art-Ideas/dp/0794514391/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240025227&sr=1-1), a must have book for all art teachers!

The geckos were drawn in pencil, outlined in oil pastel, and painted in watercolor. Large construction paper leaves were cut out and used as the background. No matter how many projects they have done over the years with oil pastel resist, it never ceases to amaze the students. They love it every time.

This project coordinated with the 1st graders reviewing their "at" words ( The cat sat on the mat). I lead the class in a "how to draw" lesson on how to draw the cat. They then drew their own cat in pencil and used waterproof black marker to trace over the pencil and add their own details to the cat. They used watercolors to paint the cat. The mat was also drawn first in pencil, traced in marker, and painted in watercolor. When the cat and the mat were dry they were cut out and mounted on a colorful sheet of construction paper. I am so impressed with the results. Watercolors can be tricky and these 1st graders handled them wonderfully.

My Kindergarteners learned about symmetry while designing these lovely mittens. After drawing symmetrical designs on the mittens the cut out the mittens, glued them to the blue paper, and then used q-tips to add snowflakes. These came out so cute!

These are some examples of the adorable clay turtles that my 4th graders recently finished. The students started by making a pinch pot, and then they "pulled" clay out of the sides to create the head, legs, and tail. We used a variety of tools to add designs to the shell and details to the faces.The turtles are made from air dry clay since we have no kiln at our school ( a situation I am trying to remedy :-).After they were dry the students used solid tempera paint blocks to paint their turtles, and modge podge was used to seal the surface and give it a shiny, finished look. I think they came out fantastic!

This is a project I originally saw on Artsonia, but I was so pleased with the job the students did I had to post them here. I used the lesson to discuss with my second graders the "power of observation". We spent time "observing" together the way snow sits on a branch and the way a complicated thing like a cardinal can be broken down into basic shapes ( ovals, circles, and triangles). The finished results drew ohhs and ahhs the whole time they were on display.

Post # 1

Ok so here we go....
This is my first post and I am rather new at this so bear with me.
I am an elementary art teacher in Amsterdam NY , and I am starting this blog with the purpose of showing off my students awsome work and well as calaloging lesson plans for future use.
Please check back often to see what my students are up to.
I have the privilage of teaching some wonderfully talented students and they deserve all the credit for the great things you will see here.