Last Project Post of the School Year...Laurel Burch Cats and Dogs

I must've changed this project 4 times before finally settling on this as the final project. Initially I wanted the project to be a tissue paper collage with a black foam printed cat/dog drawing over it but upon realizing I didn't have any black printing ink (and not wanting to use tempera), I then decided to have the kids print in a color.  I tried it out first, thankfully, didn't like the fact that there was no contrast between the background and the print, and then changed the project again.

I decided to go with bubble wrap over the tissue paper to give the kids some type of exposure to the printing process and then gave them 6x9" paper to practice drawing cats or dogs in the style of Laurel Burch. After a session or two of practice drawings, I was so impressed at how cute they were coming out I had the kids use them as their final pictures.  The drawings were then cut and glued onto the background and voila the project was complete.  The overall size is 9x12", which is a little smaller than I usually have the kids work, but the results came out cute nonetheless.

 

Sunflowers in 4 Mediums

 This lesson was taken from the blog "Kid's Artist's".  It was originally posted as a 5th grade lesson done in 5 mediums, but I adapted it for my first and second graders in 4 mediums.  The paper is 9x24" folded in half, and then in quarters.  I had the kiddies use crayon, marker, watercolor, and oil pastel.  This was a great end of year tie-in to the planting they had done in their classrooms for our brand new school greenhouse using sunflower seeds. We also learned a little bit about van Gogh and his sunflower still-life paintings.

4th and 5th grade perspective cities

 

A special shout-out to the blog: "SmArt Class" for sharing this lesson and inspiring me to try it!  This ended up being the last project before my maternity leave and it was a great way to end the school year for my fourth and fifth graders.  The technical aspect of the project kept them engaged and the setup and cleanup was minimal.  The kids also really loved the idea of using the markers with water and a paintbrush as a kind of watercolor paint.  I really pushed them to make these as creative as possible, whether they were creating a fictional or realistic landscape, I wanted them to add as many personal details as possible.  Here's a few pictures from in progress works and finished ones.