Peacock Paintings by 3rd Grade

These fabulous paintings are going in our upcoming February student art show....but here's a sneak peek!

This is a 3 day project for 3rd graders...but could be done with 2nd or 4th. 

Day One: We discussed the differences between Peacocks and Peahens. The boys love hearing that the girls are drab and plain looking while the boys are colorful and vibrant. I have this great video I show of a peacock trying to catch a snake...http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Indian_Peafowl

We draw the peacock's body, beak, talons and the first row of metallic feathers. I let the kids paint everything with different shades of gold paint. 

Day Two: We draw about 20 "eyes of the gods" in black oil pastel then use cool colors to paint them.

Day Three: We paint the rest of the plumage with cool colors and add lines with oil pastels. They cut out their eyes of the gods and collage them around the painting. These are awesome! 

 I encourage a lot of creativity when painting the feathers. They can aim for realistic feathers or make them really abstract. They also experiment with some color mixing....different types of brush techniques...mixed media things are happening and it's great.

Henna Hands

 

Oh the school auction projects are starting. This year our auction is in November, but I like to get a head start so that I'm not super stressed the week of!

 

This year my 2nd graders are making "Mehndi" inspired hand designs. I'm going to put them into a radial design on a framed wooden board. The "hands" were a big hit last year, but I realized tying this into a historical and cultural standard would be fabulous.

 

Day One: We talked about "Mehndi", the application of henna as a temporary form of skin decoration in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. We looked at several photos of henna tattoos and talked about how Hindu brides decorate their hands and feet with henna for special celebrations like weddings.

 

First they traced their hand, outlined with black sharpie and added their henna tattoos.

2nd grade!!

 

Next we will paint with a watercolor wash and then they'll cut them out and place on the board. I'll attach more photos as the project develops.

 

 

 

And here's the completed auction projects!

 

 

 

Peacocks, peafowl, penhens and more (last year)

2nd grade made these beautiful peacock paintings at the end of last year and I never had a chance to blog about it.

So here they are!

Special thanks to Patty from deepspacesparkle.com for this idea: http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/2010/04/15/peacock-art-project-for-first-grade/

I figured out the best sequence for my 2nd graders is:
Day one: draw the peacock, draw lines for feathers (no circles yet) and paint the body with metallic tempera.

I gave each table 3 cups of paint: blue, teal and green

Oil pastel designs on the feathers before gluing the circles down really looks good...

Day two: Draw concentric circles or "eyes of the gods" could talk about India and significance of the peacock....and paint those concentric circles on a separate piece of white paper. While those are drying, paint the feathers with same blues, greens and teals from concentric circles.

Then cut out 'eyes' and glue around feathers!

Super easy and beautiful!