1st Grade Turkey Paintings

We used oil pastels and liquid watercolors…this is a yearly fav for my Kindergarteners and 1st graders. It’s easy and beautiful…and festive!
Trace a butter lid for the body, add all the parts of a turkey….outline with oil pastels adding lines, designs and patterns. Lastly, paint with liquid watercolors.

2nd Grade Collage Turkeys

Well, these are a little belated seeing as how it’s December and this was a Thanksgiving project…but maybe you can use this idea for next year?

One Day Project…
Trace a circle for the body…draw a “bowling pin” for the neck and head…collage all the parts. The legs are the most important…accordion fold!
I call these “Crazy, Creative Turkeys” ….

Gumball Machines by 3rd Grade

Inspired by Wayne Thiebaud’s “Three Machines”  1963
I showed a BrainPop video on Pop Art that gives a nice description of Pop Art for kiddos. The video focuses on Warhol, mostly, but does show a glimpse of “Three Machines”.

Day One: Drawing and Painting the Machine
I used my Ladibug document camera to draw this step-by-step with the class. I passed out butter lids they could trace for the glass globe.


I let the kids use some glossy, red latex enamel for the machine…it will stain, but I gave several warnings and they did fine with keeping their clothes clean.
I demonstrated how to paint and add the shadow/highlights.

Day Two: Adding Gumballs
We stamped marker lids using black paint inside the glass globe. Then I passed out trays of primary colors and they used their color mixing skills to create secondary and intermediate colors.