Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”

 In this activity, students learn about Vincent Van Gogh. They then take what they have learned to inspire them to create their own version of Starry Night. To start, students cut up pieces of tissue paper and use midge lodge to glue the pieces to the black background. After this is completed, students take crayons to make marks around their tissue paper to support the swirls. Next, students cut out a foreground of their choosing. They can support the shapes the cut with crayons too. Finally, they glue these shapes on and write their names on the project.

To build on this lesson, students could be instructed to write short poems about their Starry Night. They could tell a story through their poem about how they think the characters or animals that would be in their scene feel.

Drawing Insects

 

This project is all about symmetry. Students are guided to fold a large piece of watercolor paper in half. They can choose to fold it in half horizontally or vertically. Students then pick an insect to draw an outline of in pencil first, then in sharpie. Students should do their best to make a symmetrical outline. After that students use crayons to make designs on their insects. Students were instructed to create at least 3 different designs that should also be symmetrical. Finally, students use water colors to support their designs. 

As an extension activity, students could be given printed pictures of real insects, and they have to draw the line of symmetry. Furthermore, you could integrate science in by pointing out different types of insects, and insect body segments. 

Painting Turkeys

 This project is a lesson for using the medium painting. The project is done by first mixing paint to make brown, and then painting the back of two paper plates, one large and one small (or a second large plate cut down to a smaller circle). Why that is drying, students can move to the feather station, where they spray a layer of shaving cream, and then paint is dropped on top of the shaving cream to be swirled around to look like a marble effect. Students then dip a rectangular piece of paper into the shaving cream swirl. After they pull the paper off the shaving cream, they scrape off the excess shaving cream, leaving a marble effect on the paper. After those dry, students can cut out a feather shape. Next, students cut out shapes for the eyes, beak, neck, and feet. Finally, once everything is dry, the students glue everything together. As students work, the teacher has lots of opportunities to teach how to mix paints to achieve the desired color. In addition, shapes, and movement are great areas to talk about with students.

As an extension activity, would be to have a discussion on unity/diversity. Students would be instructed to go on a gallery walk to see everyone else's turkeys. Once everyone has a chance to see all of the turkeys they would sit down to discuss the similarities and differences. As the discussion goes on, I would guide students to seeing that the feathers are different because they all have different swirls, but they are similar because they all have the marble effect. Even though the feathers have different swirls and may have different colors, but they all look super cool. Then, I would lead the discussion to talk about how each of us have differences, but we can all get along because we all have wonderful characteristics, even if those characteristics are different. 

Paper Weaving

 This project is all about weaving, colors, and lines. Students are tasked with picking colors that mean something to them to make their projects. For me, I chose yellow to represent joy, white to represent faith, and blue to represent peace. Students can pick whatever colors they would like to use, and they attach a piece of paper on the back with what the colors they chose means to them. The teacher has a great opportunity to discuss the history of weaving and its uses in different cultures too. Furthermore, the teacher can talk about lines as a principle of art. 

For an extension activity, students can write more about the colors they chose and why. They can write three different paragraphs, one for each color, to explain what the colors represent to them. They can further this by explaining why the ideas they chose represent them. 

Hidden Animals

 Can you find the hidden animal? Probably not, especially over a computer screen, but a hidden animal is drawn in light blue underneath the chaotic scene of warm colored shapes. This project allows students to practice making patterns and using warm colors. The procedure to make this project starts with students creating special superhero glasses. A red graphic overlay film is glued to construction paper cut in the shape of glasses or goggles. This will allow students to see the hidden animal after the project is completed. Why the glasses are drying, students move on to the actual drawing part. They start by using a light blue colored pencil to draw an animal on a plain white piece of paper. Then the students use warm colored crayons to make lots of patterned shapes to hide their animal. After the students complete this step, they finish up by writing three clues on the bottom of the frame that gives hints as to what the animal is. After the project is complete students can put on their goggles to view the now hidden animal. 

As an extension activity, you could have students subtract the number of one shape by the number of a different shape. For successful answers, you could reveal a hint to the students so they can slowly guess what the animal is. 

International Dot Day

 

This image is from a project celebrating International Dot Day. This day was formed based off of the book, "The Dot" by Peter Reynolds, a book that celebrates the art of everyone no matter how big, small, realistic, or abstract it is. This project features a dot in the center and colors are put radially around the dot. Students also can be given the freedom to make multiple dots, or use any type of drawing or coloring utensil. 

As an extension activity you could definitely have students use just warm or cool colors to color around their dot, they would still have the freedom to use any type of utensil or use multiple dots, but if you have them use only warm or cool colors, you can talk more about color theory. 

Elements and Principles of Art

This project tasks students with finding pictures that represent each of the elements and principles of design. Below are five examples of some pictures I took.

 This picture is a zoomed in photo of my backpack. The repeating hexagons represents pattern. 

The crayons in this crayon box represent unity and variety. Every crayon has the same shape and the Crayola name on their label. However, there is variety among the crayons because each is a different color. 

This picture comes from the NSU Library. It represents value. There are whites, blacks, and many grays in-between. 

This picture comes from a library wall, but you can find a wall like this in just about any school building. It represents texture, kids love to run their hand or finger along the wall to feel the texture in the wall. 

This picture comes from the Miranda Cemetery in Miranda, SD. It represents Asymmetrical Balance. There is a dividing line down the middle, starting with the title stone and going down towards the bell and in-between the trees at the back of the cemetery. There are the same number of trees on either side of the dividing line, and about the same number of headstones on both sides. 

As an extension activity, you could have each student take at least one close up picture, like the first one in this post. Then, you could have a guessing game with the class to see if they can figure out what the close up picture is. Students may guess what the close up picture is, but it will likely be difficult. This is a great opportunity to talk about perspective. You could explain to students that when they are in the middle of something, it's like they are looking at a close up picture. It can be hard to understand what is really going on because you can't see the big picture. However, if you take a step back, and change your perspective you can get a clearer view. In life, this means you can know that the tough things will end, and it will get better. For example, in the pandemic we face now, we know it is not going to go on forever, we know the pandemic will end.