Art Outline Unit 4

This week was kindness week at our school, and this project was the perfect talking point to wrap up kindness themes, and kick off February! 

Supplies: 

-Plain white copy paper trimmed to 8 1/2 by 8 1/2, or 8 by 8. 

-pencil for sketching

-coloring medium (crayons, colored pencils, markers, and highlighters were all utilized here). 

Time:

50-65 minutes 

You can shave a bit off by prepping a bit ahead but by and large, the students will definitely need help getting the hand shape right, and if you've got a large room, you'll need to assitst almost each one of them. An extra couple of adults helping wouldn't hurt at all. 

So by now, 2nd graders have done about a thousand handprint projects in their lives, and I always like to expound on previous skills. Today we used our tracing-our-own-hand skills as a model for how we could get a rough idea of the right proportion, then sketch the version that looked right, even if it wasn't a direct trace. 

1. I showed the kids two ways to make a heart shape with their hands and instructed and helped them trace/sketch their heart hands of choice. 

2. Trace your finished hands (the parts you want to stand out) in black marker or crayon. 

3. Gently draw (in pencil) a grid over your hand shapes. (This is assuming you have not provided them with grids pre-drawn. I wanted their own variations so I left mine blank, but some students struggled with time on this one, so if I had to do it over, I would give them paper I had already applied grids to, and eliminate the draw-your-own grid step.)

4. Apply warm colors to the boxes inside the hands and cool colors to the surrounding boxes. If this is too simplistic for some of your more enthused art participants, offer alternatives. Leaving the hands empty and only filling in the surrounding areas is one example, as one student did here. 

It's another great exercise in contrasts, and a handprint with a twist. 

This student opted for the "closed fingers" heart shape. 

This one reminds me of Elmer the Patchwork Elephant. So vibrant! 

Art Outline Unit 3

This week we started on some festivity!

The classic cutting snowflakes activity takes on a little twist when you use your creations to form snowmen. 

Supplies:

-Background paper (construction thickness at least). I chose a grayish blue.

-Printer paper. Plain white sheets are best. Trying to cut through anything thicker, once folded, is too challenging for student scissors. (Some people use coffee filters for this and they work well.)

-Small scraps of accent papers. I supplied black for hats and coal, red for scarves, and orange for a carrot nose. 

-Scissors

-Glue

Time:

45-60 minutes. 

Once the students get rolling this goes very smoothly, but they usually need help with the folding directions quite a bit at first. 

(Instructions for a true to nature 6-point snowflake can be found here!)

By now most of the students have done some kind of snowflake project in their elementary careers. I just gave them guidelines and they went to town! 

I gave them the option of using a cut snowflake for their snowman's head, or a solid circle they cut. Most chose a snowflake head because once you get going they are really irresistible!

Art Outline Unit 2

This week's second grade project included several art vocabulary talking points, including warm and cool colors, unusual shapes, and how we can mix mediums to get the unique benefits from different materials.

Supplies: 

-pencil to sketch 

-watercolor paper

-watercolor paint and brush set

-black crayon 

-small cups of water/paper towels, for wetting and dabbing the brush. 

Time:

35-50 minutes (some students like to take their time and be more meticulous; others like to rush and be done. This gave a good range for both kinds). 

Plus 5-10 minutes of cleanup. 

I love seasonal studies, so I drew several examples of autumn leaf shapes on the white board. The students either copied mine (in pencil) or felt free to follow their own imagination and memory. 

Next we traced our leaves in thick markings with our black crayon. We discussed how the waxy crayons would resist watercolor paint and show boldly even after we added our colors. 

Finally the students added paint. Warm colors for inside the leaves and cool colors to surround. I explained how to use more water to diminish the tone of the background, so the saturated leaves would really stand out. Some of the students used this option and some chose to match the intensity of the leaves with their background. 

A few samples from today: