It's Snowing in the Art Room...Wait it's Snowing Everywhere!

 How fitting that my second graders finished their fun snowmen and tomorrow NY is supposed to get hit yet again with a major snowstorm!  If there's a snow day tomorrow it'll be our 4th this year! I can't remember the last time that's happened...Anyways, I want to give credit for this lesson to the blog "What's Happening in the Art Room?".  When I was fishing around for a winter themed project some time ago I came across this one and thought it was adorable.  Turns out, it is!  These snowmen are soooo fun and spirited and they really capture the energy and personality of the children who made them.  Here's how the lesson went down:

The project took 3 days.  On day 1 we read the story "Snowmen All Year" (you could also read "Snowmen At Night") by Carolyn Buehner. Before I read the story I asked the students to pay particular attention to how Mark Buehner, the illustrator, created the snowmen.  After the story we created a class graphic organizer with all the students observations.  After that I used the Smartboard to show the students how they could draw their snowmen by zooming in on them.  They could do a diagonal composition, a side composition, upside down, or centered, but the image had to be large!  I told the students to use some of the ideas from our graphic organizer to add details to their snowmen. 

On day 2 I had the students use white oil pastels to create a resist design.  They then went over the oil with liquid watercolor and lots of water to create a fun and colorful wash.

On day 3 the kiddies used Mr. Sketch markers to color the details of their snowmen and lastly I referred back to the graphic organizer when we discussed the way Mark Buehner use color to emphasize the white of his snowmen.  We use 2 colors of chalk pastel side by side and then gently blended them around the perimeter of the snowmen. 

You know it just occurred to me that I should be saying "snowpeople" or at least snowmen and snow-women, lol! 

Oh well, either way, I just love these!