If you have extra time after gluing, you may want to read a book to the class. I like the website www.wegivebooks.org. It features full length, full color children’s books online to read for free. It works great with the computer and projector in my art room. We recently read Tinga Tinga Tales -Why Lion Roarrrs!
First graders rock! Our Ocean Week comic winners are both from the first grade. Please enjoy “The Adventures of Awesome Angler and Shadowy Shark” by Jack C. and “The Adventures of Strike the Shark” by Lucas C.
"The Adventures of Awesome Angler and Shadowy Shark!" by Jack C.
"Awesome Angler, Hero of the Deep" by Jack C.
"The Adventures of Strike the Shark" by Lucas C.
(hmmmm…..in my experience, seven-year old boys and sharks go together like peanut butter and jelly!)
Lots more Ocean Week Comic Contest winners here, here, here, and here.
Tune in next time for our very last Comic Contest post!
Looking for a fun and pretty Mother’s Day project for kindergarteners and first graders? First graders just put the finishing touches on their Mother’s Day project: a shiny gold frame made with pasta! Bonus for primary students: this project reinforces pattern lessons taught in the general ed. classroom. It’s two lessons in one.
First graders use tag board, pasta and glue to create a picture frame. Look carefully at the pasta: can you see the A-B-C-B-A pattern?
Materials:
Tag board
White glue (Elmer’s)
Template cut to size of art you wish to frame
Dry pasta (we used four different shapes)
Gold spray paint
Prep:
Cut tag board to desired dimension. Center template on tag board and trace with pencil.
Lesson:
Students glue pasta on the outside edge of their tag board. Explain to students we can’t put pasta in the center of the frame because that is where the art will go.
Dry on drying rack. Be sure to dry in horizontal position ( you may even tell the kids to hold the art ‘flat’ as they carry it to the drying rack).
Option 1: create pattern with pasta. We alternated pasta to create an A-B-C-B-A pattern.
Option 2: student’s choice! So fun and unique.
Finishing the project:
Spray the pasta with gold paint. No need to paint the center of the frame. Spray outside!
Insert art and wait for the oohs and aahs!
The pasta/glue bond is quite strong, especially if you encourage kids to use a big dot of glue. In fact, the inspiration for this project came from my son’s kindergarten teacher. I have been carrying around that pasta frame holiday gift for over 10 years, and it is still intact 🙂
Welcome to the royal art room! The first grade recently finished their royal self portraits.
First graders create a portrait of themselves as princes or princesses. Allow 3-4 40-minute classes.
Materials:
white paper, 12″x18″
pencils and erasers
self-portrait template (optional)
several shades of skin-colored tempera (thinned with water)
watercolors
Sharpies
crayons
sequins, ribbons and lace
glue
Day 1:
We started out by looking at photos of royal gear: crowns, swords, jewels, and medals. Students began by drawing the face, neck and torso. Then they added crowns and fine clothes. Most drew castles in the background – some even added their ‘royal’ pets!
Day 2:
The skin was painted with thinned tempera. We painted the rest with regular and metallic pan watercolors. Tiny details (such as eyes) were colored in with crayon.
Day 3:
The students outlined the dry art with Sharpies. ‘Jewels’ (sequins), ribbons and lace were glued on for a final touch.
Students outlined their (dry) paintings with Sharpies.
Sequins make fabulous jewels.
Scraps of ribbon and lace make royal clothing extra fancy.
And here are the fabulous results!
A royal knight.
Some students chose to draw themselves as knights. I wrote about it in this post.
First graders just love knights. We traced a template, then drew in details. We used silver tempera, metallic watercolors and fabulous embellishments to create our knights. Intruders beware – the castle is safe!
