Art Smart-1st grade Part 2

We did so many fun projects this past year, that I had to split this into 2 posts!

Artist: Paul Klee
Supplies needed: drawing paper, pencil, crayons

We tried our hand at 1 line drawings. Each kid had 1 piece of paper and a pencil. I told them that they could draw anything they wanted, BUT they could NOT lift the pencil off of the paper. It had to be 1 continuous line with no breaks in it. Once they figured out their drawing and finished it to their liking, we let them add color to the picture with crayons. I figured with the crayons we could still see the pencil line.

Artist: Charles DeMuth
Supplies needed: white drawing paper, pencil, gold paper, cool color oil pastels

Each kid cut out a medium sized gold 5 and glued it in the middle of the paper. Using a pencil, they drew a straight line out to the edge of the paper from each point on the 5. (We added one on the round section on the bottom as well) They then drew 2 circles around the 5 at 1" apart. Using a black crayon or oil pastel, trace all the lines drawn with the pencil. Have the kids fill in each section with the cool colors!

Art Smart-1st grade Part 1

This past year with Art Smart has been a very busy one! I was asked to lead the entire first grade class (close to 100 students) in all the art lessons. It only occurs once a month, and then I was able to round up other helpers to then go back to each of the 4 classes to help the kids stay on task. In addition to the first grade, I was also teaching D's kindergarten class. I will share with you all the projects and artists that we talked about in first grade. Sadly I don't have pictures for all the projects, for the whole class. I do have some of L's projects and will upload more images of them as I can find them. (You know how all the end of school stuff gets stashed in random places)


Artist: Helen Frankenthaler
 This was tons of fun and actually the last one we did this year in class. When we got home from school that day, D really wanted to try it as well. And since we already had paints and paper out for my little Indiana Summer magazine craft, we went ahead and did this one again!

Supplies needed: thick paper, primary color paints (red, yellow, and blue), brushes, and plastic wrap
Have the children paint the primary colors in splotches all over the paper, they can wet the paper with plain water first to help spread the paint. (I found it also helps to slightly water down the paint as well). Show the kids that if 2 of the colors mix, it creates one of the secondary colors (purple, orange and green). When they are happy with the amount of paint on their papers, crinkle up a piece of plastic wrap and lay on top of the painting, and then let dry totally with it on there. Ours took 2 days to dry. Once you pull the plastic off, you will notice a really neat texture!

Artist Wassily Kandinsky
For this project I had the teachers push 2 tables together in each class, and then laid out a long sheet of white paper. This was a new project that I had added to the list this year, so I was nervous that it wouldn't work. It turned out fantastic, and each classroom's painting turned out completely different!

Supplies needed: long sheets of white paper, brushes, different paint colors (we mixed our own to make different shades), cups or bowls for the paint.
We started out by having each child stand around the tables, and each child had their own color of paint in a cup, and a brush that followed the child around the table. Each kid painted 1 circle anywhere in front of them. It could have been whatever size that they liked. We then told them next, each kid took 1 step to the right, and added a circle to the one that was already painted. We kept going like that until we either ran out of room, or all the kids made it all the way around the table. These made fun and colorful murals to hang up just in time for our art fair!

Artist: Cave Paintings
These were tons of fun and all the kids had a blast doing this one!
Supplies needed: brown paper grocery bags (our local store let us take whatever we needed but we did ask first), oil pastels, scissors, white thick paper, spray bottles, and watered down washable paint (we used re, orange or yellow as those would have been easy to make back then)

I went ahead and cut the paper bags into rectangles ahead of class time. We only had an hour, if you have more time, you can let the kids cut them or have them tear them into an animal hide shape. Using the oil pastels, the kids drew primitive animal shapes, fire, and people shapes on the bag, just like the cave people did.

Then as an added fun cave painting drawing, we left our artist mark. The cave people would put their paint in their mouth, and spit it at their hand on the cave wall, leaving behind a hand outline. Well, instead of spitting the paint, we put watered down washable paints in inexpensive spray bottles. Each kid wrote their name on the back of a thick piece of white paper. Next they put them inside a large box, and put their hands down on top of the paper. I then sprayed the paint over their hands, and when they lifted it up, we had their mark!

Artist: Georgia O'Keffe
This was super simple but fun!
Supplies needed: white drawing paper, pencil, crayons

The kids started by drawing a small basic flower shape in the center of the paper. They then drew the same lines just a 1/2" around the first drawing. Continue this until the entire paper is filled. We then let the kids fill in the picture with crayons, markers, or you could have them paint them!

Artist: Grandma Moses
This worked out great right before Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Supplies needed: white drawing paper, pencil, crayons, construction paper frame
Grandma Moses was known for drawing family get togethers, and normal everyday life on the farm. Have the kids think of a family get together or function. Most kids in our class picked a holiday. Have them draw their family with added details around the room. Color them in!

Last Day of School Fun!

On the very last day of school, we have what we call Fun In The Sun. Basically it is a field day for the entire school, and this year I was able to lead a relay race for the morning half of the day. I was then able to have lunch with both kids on the hill with all their friends.

After lunch I headed out to run some errands. I had picked up fun things from Dollar Tree to fill up a sand bucket. I put in a bug house, bubbles, silly string, book log, small can of root beer, goldfish crackers, and Twizzler bites. I also picked up a window marker and wrote on the back side windows, "Welcome to Summer." And last but not least, I picked up 2 helium balloons that I tied to the inside door handle of each kids door. When I arrived at school for pick up, I opened the windows and let the balloons fly out. When I drove up to the sidewalk where all the kids and teachers were waiting, I was met with loud hoots, hollers, and cheers. The kid's mouths dropped open. You could tell they were wondering what the heck mom was up to!

Both were very excited to break into their summer fun buckets right away!

And of course the silly string was used as soon as we made it home. 

Here is to a fun filled summer! Hope you all have a great time with everything you do this year!!!

Last days of school 2013

Wow, it has been awhile since I posted here. Sorry for the gap in time. The last month of school is always a very busy one. We finished up L's first grade and D's kindergarten year at the beginning of June. Their school does an awards ceremony for each grade level over 2 days. This year, we were lucky that both of ours fell on the same day. We started out the morning at L's. He was given a Life Skill award of problem solving. It was a great time! They also put together a very nice slide show for the entire first grade, and I have to say that I was honored to be included with the Art Smart work I have done with them over the last year.

L and his wonderful teacher! She has really made a difference in him over this past year!

The afternoon we were able to head to D's awards. They also had a nice slideshow for the entire kindergarten class, but they also sang 3 songs. It was very sweet, and many tears were shed through out the entire day. Not just by the parents, but the kids and teachers as well. 

D and her fantastic teacher. We will be sad to leave such a fun and wonderful classroom. 

Mixed Media Spring Mural

While checking Pinterest for some fun Earth day projects, I came across this fun mural. Originally done as a photo of the day on the Phillips.family blog, I figured it would be the perfect project to work on today. You see, it is suppose to be spring here in Indiana, and in typical Indiana fashion, it is cold and rainy with light warmth in sight. D and I figured if we made a wonderful flower mural, then maybe, just maybe, it would encourage Mother Nature to share some sun and warm weather on us in the next few weeks.

The original post only had a picture, so we made things up as we went. We didn't have the cardboard or brown paper that the original had, but we do have the Ikea paper roll. I can't say anything but wonderful things about this paper roll! We normally use it on the Ikea easel that we have had for many years now, and has been used for chalk, dry erase markers, washable markers, crayons, colored pencils and paint!

Supplies needed:
large piece of paper
tape (we taped down our paper to make it easier) *optional
brown, green, and blue paint
paint brushes
tray (we re-used a foam tray from some produce)
green paper
scissors
tissue paper of all colors
glue sticks and Elmer school glue
cotton balls

Our first step was to paint brown dirt along the bottom of the paper. This was D's idea. She thought that since we didn't have the brown paper like the picture, then we needed to add the brown ourselves. So we painted just a small strip of brown along the bottom.

 Next step was to paint the green grass. I figured that we would just paint a strip like we did for the dirt, but D had other ideas. She insisted that we paint points to the grass. Sure, why not! In the end, I do love how it looks better.

When the grass was done, and while the paint was drying, we sat on the floor and cut long strips of green paper for the flower stems. D said she didn't want long ones, but I did. So we ended up with all different sizes of stems. Worked out great! We then dug through our tissue paper box, looking for fun flower colors. There were dark blue, light blue, green, pink, purple, red, yellow, and orange! We just cut small squares and then crumpled them a bit. The paint was mostly dry at this point, and we decided that instead of gluing the stems down, it might be best if we paint the sky so that way we knew how tall to make the stems. We painted a nice size strip of blue at the top, making sure to not have a straight line, since "the sky is not straight". D started to add rain drops, but when I reminded her that we were trying to keep the rain away, she changed her mind. While the blue sky was drying we got to work on the stems. We used all different sizes for the stems. Once we were happy with how many stems there were, we used the school glue to add a drop at the top of each stem. Then just squish a small ball of tissue paper to it, and you have spring flowers!

By the time we were done with the flowers, the sky was dry, so it was time for the big fluffy clouds! In the picture they just glued down the cotton balls in groups, and painted around them. I asked D if she wanted to do it like that, or if we should pull the balls apart and fluff them up a bit. She thought we should do both, so we did!

I am really happy with our finished mural! I really can't wait for it to dry totally so we can hang it up on the wall. We had a great time making it, and D was so excited to show Daddy and L. It was a simple, relatively mess-free craft!

For some fun Earth Day ideas, check out what we did last year! http://kellyheet.blogspot.com/2012/04/earth-day-crafts.html

Blooming Flowers!

I had the great fortune to be included in the Little Indiana Quarterly Magazine once again! This time the theme was spring. One of my favorite seasons, not too hot and not too cold normally.  Adam and I brainstormed for an all new craft idea. Together we came up with this fun one.

Supplies needed:
toilet paper tube
green paint
paint brush
tissue paper in fun bright colors
scissors
green plastic straw (found in the Meijer kitchen department)
brass brad fastener
glue stick
brown, green, and orange construction paper

We started out by having flower shapes pre-cut out of the tissue paper, small circle out of the orange paper, seed shape in the brown, and leaves shapes in the green.  Have the kids paint the top edge of the tube with the green paint, this will be the grass.


Each kid picked 3 flower shapes, stacked them on top of each other, glued the orange circle to the middle, and attached them all together with the brass brad.

We then glued the leaf shapes to the green straw. We started with 2 separate leaf shapes, but that didn't work well. So we re-cut the leaves with a section where they are connected in the middle. This makes it easier to glue onto the straw.

Now to glue the seed to the brown part of the tube under the grass. This gives you a chance to talk about how plants grow and what they need. :-)  Make a small slit in the top of the green straw and insert the brad with the flower attached. Roll the flower, and leaves up, and slide inside the tube from the top down.

Now slowly push the straw up and out pops the pretty flowers! You could always staple the bottom of the straw to the bottom of the tube to create a stand, or do what I eventually did, gather all the flowers on the straws and put them in a vase. That way you can have pretty spring flowers that the cat won't eat!

To buy your copy of Little Indiana: Spring Edition

President's Day Crafts

It's President's day again, and both kids had the day off from school. We had been reading some great books for about 2 weeks before. We stuck with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln this year. These 3 crafts were simple, easy, and use things that most people already have in their house!

The first one was a very simple Honest Abe. Originally found at Chalk Talk. I drew the basic shape out on just white construction paper. Just let the kids have at it with basic crayons. I love how they all came out slightly different and slightly the same.

This was a very fun Washington craft! Found on The First Grade Parade . They also had the kids do a writing prompt, which I wanted to do, but ran out of time. Start with a paper plate cut in half. To make the perfect skin tone for this craft, just mix a little orange in a blob of white. While the paint is drying, cut out the hat from blue construction paper. When all is dry and ready to go, add cotton balls for his wig and let the kids draw on his face. D made sure to add his false teeth and tongue!

I found this finger puppet craft last year and ran out of time. So I thought it would be great to try it this year. Originally found Kaboose and marked as for 4 years and up, I would say that even my very crafty 5 and 6 year old had trouble with this one. Made from just construction paper, tape, and coins, the kids had trouble rolling the paper and taping at the same time. With a little help from me, we were able to get it in the right shape. From there on out, I let the kids embellish them however they liked, and we had no more problems. Later in the day, the kids both put on a show using these little guys.

See what other fun crafts we have done in the past!
2012: President's day crafts
2011: President's day