Collaborative Art for Senior Classes

I recieved a message asking for some ideas for collaborative art with 5th class. Here are a few ideas that can work with senior classes.

1. Collaborative drawing

Have the kids write a theme on a piece of  paper and put in a box. Each group takes a piece of paper and creates a drawing on the theme. Large roll of paper and space for all the group to work on the same page is needed. Space, summer, food, animals, farm, take away, sweets, could all work as themes.

2. Shade and tint group painting 

Tint add white

Shade add black

Each group paints a picture using only 3 colours. A pure colour, white and black, to create tints and shades of the colour. Giving a topic can help, so maybe a song, movie or book title. The other groups can try to guess what the picture depicts. 

3. Circle Paintings 

http://irishprimaryart.blogspot.ie/2016/04/fields-of-flowers.html?m=1

4. Dice Art

Create three die, one with 6 different lines on each side, one with different colours and one with different shapes. In small groups the kids take turn to roll two die (the colour dice must be rolled each time) and draw the corresponding line/shape. A large sheet of paper for the group to work on is needed. Oil pastels, chalk, paints or pencils can be used. 

5. Dice Games

Lots of these games are on Pinterest like the Roll a Harring below. Perfect for a collaborative project. 

6. Body Art

If you have paper large enough you can have the kids lie down and draw around each other. The shapes should over lap. Then using paint they can fill in the over lapping shapes and then the other shapes using lots of different shades and tints. 

Or choose one child from each group to be traced around in an interesting pose. Them the group can complete the psinting in the style of Keith Harring. 

7. Colour Wherl Collage

A nice way to revise the colour wheel and create a display for your class. Each group takes a colour and glues pieces of paper in their chosen colour to their section. When complete the sections are glued together to create the colour wheel or flower! 

Art and Nature

We are finally getting some nice weather here in Ireland and it is starting to feel like summer. That said it is cloudy and cold here today but I've heard that there will be a heatwave next week! 

Here are some ideas for bringing your art class outdoors.

Enjoy

Found object collage

Use leaves, petals, stones, or shells to create hair dos. Get the kids to draw the faces and you get two lessons ;)

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/750x/df/61/01/df6101c656998eddb8cce5c264dbdc73.jpg

Pictures with natural objects 

Use whatever you find to create pictures of animals, people, whatever you can think of! 

http://www.catholicsistas.com/2014/05/09/weather-turns-nice-gut-check-time-catholic-homeschool/

Keith Harring style stick people 

Use a stick to form part of the body of your stick person. Finish the body with a black marker. Paint around the stick person in a bright colour. 

http://patrick.straub.free.fr/site_art_pla2/2012_mouvements.htm

Wind chime

Use a stick to hang strings of beads or shells. Decorate with paint, ribbons or wool. 

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/750x/8d/d6/49/8dd64905f4b0f8867b6f82a5afc02327.jpg

Outdoor weaving 

This is a lovely idea for those with a school garden. Set up a weaving station where children can weave leaves, reeds, and flowers. Beautiful :) 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/panforte/3920371676/in/photostream/

I hope some of these inspire you to bring your class outside for your next art lesson. 

Spring Art - Senior Classes

Spring art ideas for senior classes

Strands : Drawing, Paint & Colour, Fabric & Fibre 

Still life - Vincent Van Gogh 'Irises' or a painting of your choice. Look at and discuss the painting. Bring in a a bunch of spring flowers and arrange in a vase (on folds of a table cloth to add interest)

Look at how the light and shadows fall etc.

Allow children to choose drawing materials and to experiment. 

Collaborative Drawing (4/5 per group)

Use old wall paper, gift wrap, roll of paper, or stick sheets of paper together. Give each group a topic ( first signs of spring, spring animals, spring flowers, spring weather, birds/trees during spring, etc) and allow them draw based on their topic (oil pastels, makers, pencils, chalk) 

Grid Painting 

Choose a famous spring themed painting. Divide it into sections, give each child a section (grid reference and mark top & bottom of the page on which they will draw) to create their own version in their own style using paints, oil pastels, chalk etc. Once completed put the sections together to form the image. 

Click on the link for instructions on grid painting.

http://teachkidsart.blogspot.ie/2010_02_01_archive.html?m=1

Painting 

Look at the work of Canadian artist Maud Lewis (Folk Art).

Create painting of a spring scene in a similar style to Maud. 

Paper Collage

Matisse paper cutting, look at  'Snowflower' for inspiration. Brain storm things to do with spring. Cut paper shapes and glue on card to create spring inspired image. 

Whatever the Weather - 5th & 6th

I was asked for ideas for 5th & 6th on the theme of weather. Some of the weather ideas I posted last week could be used with more senior classes but here are a few more suitable for 5th & 6th.

1. Looking & Responding 

Don't forget that you can include this in a lesson or have a stand alone lesson on it. A search in Google images will bring up a plethora of famous artworks on your topic. 

The topic here is weather and here are the paintings I found. 

The Liffey Swim by Jack B. Yeats. (Top)

Woman with a Parasol - Madame Monet and Her Son, by Claude Monet. (Bottom Left)

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat. (Bottom, Middle)

The Umbrellas (French: Les Parapluies) by Pierre- Auguste Renoir. (Bottom Right)

Responding can simply be a discussion about the painting, it can be a written piece such as a poem, or it can be creating a piece inspired by the artwork. 

This is a wax resist that appears to be inspired by ' The Umbrellas' by Renoir. 

2. Diorama 

I love dioramas! I used make these as a child with my Aunt. I used to make a hole in each side of the box and put a straw through. Then cut out people or animals and stick them to the straw to create a miniature theatre. Dioramas work for nearly any topic and allow for lots of creativity.  

They are a nice project to work on over a number of weeks and can be linked with other subject areas. 

How about creating a diorama to show the water cycle? 

3. Mixed media

A mixed media city scape in greys and blacks with some coloured rain. Newspaper, painted paper, magazines, coloured paper and card is used to create the buildings in shades of grey. 

The cloud is made by painting card with a thick layer of grey paint. A fork was used to make wavy lines to create texture. A sheet of white paper was laid on top to create a print. Once dry a cloud shape was cut out.  

4. One Point Perspective 

Deep Space Sparkle has a great lesson on one point perspective. This is suited to 5th or 6th class. Children can be given a selection of weather situations to be depicted in their picture. 

www.deepspacesparkle.com

5. Expand an image

Print out images from the web, use photographs or cut images from magazines which show a variety of weather types. Each child chooses one image and glues it to a white page. They then expand the images using paint, oil pastels, colouring pencils, etc. 

www.artprojectsforkids.org

6. Illustrate a poem

Illustrate a poem or a passage based on your chosen theme. I think this magazine collage on a cereal box perfectly represents a sunny day. 

7. Turkish Sun Catcher

From Prim Ed's Awesome Art & Craft (Book 3). This resource book has lots of nice ideas suitable for older classes. 

These sun catchers are made from plastic bottles. Coloured tissue is glued inside and designs are drawn on the outside in black permanent marker. 

A few more ideas that could work with your topic of weather are,

- Lighthouse Construction (make circuit for science integration)

- Brid house /feeder ( science/ geography)

- weather vane (science/geography)

I hope I have given you some inspiration😊 

A Chubby Little Snowman

A Chubby Little Snowman

A chubby little snowman

Had a carrot nose

Along came a rabbit

And what do you suppose?

That hungry little bunny,

Looking for his lunch

ATE the snowman's carrot

               nose.....

Nibble, nibble, CRUNCH!

Scary Pumpkins!!

Halloween costumes are out in all the shops so I figure it's ok to mention it now. 

I saw these scary pumpkins a few years ago and thought they were really eyecatching. 

I gave my kids some red and yellow paint and they mixed them on their page to make the Orange they wanted. They painted a pumpkin shape and we let them dry. 

The next part of the lesson takes a bit longer. They kids cut out their pumpkin and glued it onto a black page (A3). They then cut out a mouth, teeth, eyes, and grass from coloured paper. 

I try not to give a huge amount of instruction as I prefer the kids to be creative. However before they paint their pumpkin I ask them to make sure their pumpkin is big and fills the page! Nothing worse then having a tiny pumpkin!!! 

If you try this out let me know how your class get on. :)

World Animal Day - Cats & Dogs

Another idea for World Animal Day October 4th.

This is a variation of my very first post on here! 

Simply paint some newspaper in a variety of colours.

Have a chat about shapes, maybe use some 2D shapes to make some animals. 

Cut out the shapes and arrange on the page. 

Glue in place. 

Once dry, details can be added with markers. 

  

Dingle Dangle Scarecrows

G

When I think of scarecrows I think of Worzel Gummidge! I grew up in the 80's!! Thankfully these scarecrows are a bit tidier than Worzel. Created by second class, the background is a simple crayon resist. We drew fields with crayon and filled them with different lines to represent different crops. A wash (water and a little paint) over the fields in green and the sky in blue finished it off.

The scarecrows were made by tearing or cutting paper and assembling to make the scarecrows head, hair, and hat! I love how each scarecrow has his/her own personality :)

If you want to sing along while you work here are the song lyrics!

Dingle Dangle Scarecrow

When all the cows were sleeping and the sun had gone to bed

Up jumped the scarecrow and this is what he said

"I'm a dingle dangle scarecrow with a flippy floppy hat,

I can shake my hands like this and shake my feet like that.

When all the hens were rousting and the moon behind a cloud,

Up jumped the scarecrow and shouted very loud

"I'm a dingle dangle scarecrow with a flippy floppy hat,

I can shake my hands like this and shake my feet like that.

Or here is a sing along video : dingle dangle scarecrow lyrics

Early Childhood Art - Collage and Construction - Review

Prim Ed very nicely  sent me their art resource books at the start of the summer. I was caught up with moving house (Nice start to the holidays!) and am only getting to post my first review now.

When my box of books arrived I had a quick glance at them all. This one jumped out at me as the pages are full of coloured photos of the children creating their art.

I will review each book under the same headings, just to be fair ;)

Layout

Contents

Dust Rating

Early Childhood Art – Collage and Construction

Amelia Ruscoe

Layout

This book has rich colours, an abundance of photographs, and is easy to follow. Each activity is explained over two pages. The information is organised under headings such as, Resources, Key Questions, and Preparation.

The last page of the book is an art storeroom stock list. This is great to have when organising your supplies, or have it copied and stuck inside your art press with the items you have highlighted.

Contents

There are 53 art activities in the book, split into 4 sections, Collage, Construction, Textiles, and Modelling. I think this book would be a great resource for anyone teaching infants, first or second class. 

Often when you get a book of art projects I find I only use one or two ideas in class. I want to try out all of these!  My favourites include String collage,  paper rollercoaster and glue drop collage.

I particularly like the photos of the children working as well as the finished artwork. The foucus in on the process, using different materials, and appreciating the outcomes.

Dust Rating

I couldn’t decide what to call this category....! Basically I am asking myself would I use this book or will it sit on the shelf gathering dust?

So one being thick with dust and five being dust free, I will award this book 5/5! 

Easy to dip into, lots of easy ideas and covers a great range of skills.

I think it would be a great addition to any teacher’s library.