Crazy Cactus Painting, 1st Grade

Cezanne Inspired Still-Life with Fruit

I've been teaching this lesson for the last couple of years and I keep changing it. This year I really focused on getting the kids to 'draw' the actual still-life, instead of letting them invent a still-life by tracing circles. I think drilling this early is going to make a big difference...

Day One:
We define "still-life" in our idea books. They draw a still-life on their own (pre-assessment) then I draw it with them. We compare our drawings and see who was using their "artist eyes" to really observe the objects.

Then I let them trace a plate to get a big circle...and then they draw the fruit and paint with warm colors.

Day Two:
We write about contrasting colors in our idea books then draw two columns...one side warm colors and the other cool colors. Then we draw a pattern for our "table" on our painting from day one. They get to paint with cool colors to show contrast. I like to talk about how "water is your friend" when you are painting....as a result, they create some value without really knowing it. So they're paintings have a little more depth. I have also started letting them use the smaller, nicer brushes...so those little brushstrokes look really nice.

Here is a really nice painting...not a still life at all...but hey, if the art teacher can't appreciate a good painting, then why are we here? 

Day Three: Adding shadows and highlights. 

I got the oil pastels out to bring some "definition" to these paintings...cause I guess I can't live without line. We added some extra pizazz/patterns/designs. Then I demonstrated how to do an "easy shadow" and a quick highlight...we outlined in black to bring some more boldness to our paintings. 

Overall...some of my favorite still-lifes yet.

The Colors of Us

"The Colors of Us" by Karen Katz

Gallery of Faces

Great story and great tool for teaching about skin tones!

1st grade created these self-portraits through teacher guided-drawing steps using pencils, oil pastels and Crayola skin tone paint...
backgrounds created with crayons and tempera paint.

Adding skin tone

Here are some of the finished faces....

Kandinsky's Concentric Circles

Here's two different grade levels focusing on Kandinsky's concentric circle painting. The collages are by Kindergartener's and the paintings are by 3rd graders. I found these lessons from Deep Space Sparkle...thanks awesome art teacher from California! (deepspacesparkle.com)

First we painted with tempera paint, then added patterns with oil pastels.

Collages!

K- Collage.

Circles everywhere!