Easy Owl painting project for kids

This year my daughter insisted on having an owl themed birthday party.  She also wanted to create an owl painting project on canvas that she could hang up on her wall.  So we came up with this art idea.

Since her birthday party, I have since painted the same owls with my grade 1 art class on paper instead of canvas.  We have been learning about the element of shape in art class and how we can use shapes to create our compositions.

Materials needed:

• 5x7 Canvas or thicker piece of paper (80lbs or more) 
• pencil 
• Acryclic paint ( we used: brown, light blue, dark blue, yellow, white, pink, purple, orange) or Tempra paint will work just fine if you are painting on paper. 
• Paint brushes 
• Water (to clean brushes) 
• Black sharpie marker

How to make an owl painting with kids:

Step 1: We covered the entire canvas with blue paint and let it dry.  For the birthday party we had this done the before the party started.  Similarly if I was going to teach this art lesson to my students I would have complete the background at the end of a previous lesson, or use colored paper.

Step 2: With pencils I show the kids how to draw the owl.  I like to use a directed drawing technique, which means I draw a part (the kids watch) and then they draw what I just drew and then repeat.  I always talk about what shapes and lines I am using as they try to replicate my drawing.   

• First we draw a “fat” oval by using a tracer.  I chose to use a tracer so that the owl would take up most of the canvas, especially since we wanted to paint it.    
• Then we drew the feet. 
• Then we draw a branch.   (a not so straight line)
• Then we draw 2 large circles for the eyes
• A triangle nose and triangle ears.   
• A half an oval for the stomach .   
• Two wings.   
• And a heart.
• (optional) Have the kids trace their pencil lines with a sharpie.  You can do this now or what until after painting.

Step 3: Then we paint.  I have the kids start painting the eyes first.  I love a nice crisp white eye!  And then continue to paint the rest of their owl.  We then we let it dry completely.

Step 4: When it is dry, we color in the black part of the eye and then I have the kids outline their owls with black sharpies to get a nice clean edge. 

And that’s it!  Ready for hanging! 

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Christmas Printables for Kindergarten Math and Literacy centers

Today I wanted to show off my latest set of printables, Christmas math and literacy centers for kindergarten.  It is available at Teachers Pay Teachers, and covers a variety of common core curriculum.

This package contains 8 literacy centers and 9 math centers as well as pocket chart cards in a Christmas theme. All of the activities are in black & white and I have provided some in color as well. These centers are great for Pre-k and kindergarten students and work on those core curriculum learning goals. These centers would also be fun for grade 1 students who need a little extra practice. 


Some of the outcomes covered in these centers include:

• alphabet sequencing
• identifying beginning letter sounds
• counting syllables
• letter identification 
• matching upper and lowercase letters
• sight words
• number sequencing
• extending patterns
• measurement skills
• and more...

Here are some pictures of the centers included in the package:

Help Santa sort his bag by coloring by letter sound.

Decorate the gingerbread man by coloring by sight word.

Match the buttons to the snowman.

Practice printing by picking letters from a cloth sack. 

 

Cut and paste and finish the pattern.

You can get these centers at my TPT store.

Need more Christmas resources?  
(Click on the pictures to take you to the post)

Make your own Christmas ornaments out of recycled Keurig pods.

Add your family photos to fun photo cards, just in time for Christmas.

Bear family Christmas photo card Vertical
by littlemunchkins

Framed art sculptures inspired by Louise Nevelson

Using famous artists as inspiration in teaching art to kids is a great way to inspire creativity.  Today I am going to share our latest art activity and how we created framed art sculptures inspired by Louise Nevelson.

Every spring I do a lot of teaching around recycling and taking care of our environment.  The warm weather and blooming flowers set a perfect backdrop for talking about keeping our community clean, garbage free and how to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.  As we learn about all the ways we can recycle we tend to collect a lot of "stuff" or "junk" that we try to re-use or re-purpose.   One of the ways we use our found objects is to create collages and art sculptures.

Louise Nevelson is one of my favorite sculptors to share with my students.  She was an artist most known for her monochromatic abstract expressionist sculptures.  Her most famous sculptures were created with materials such as wood, paper, aluminum and other pieces of found objects from the streets of New York and she would assemble the pieces in open-faced wooden boxes that were stacked and grouped to make free-standing walls and displays.  Her sculptures were painted in a single color, usually black, but sometimes white or gold.

To create our sculptures we need to have the following supplies:

• a base (picture frame, or shoe box, shoe box lid, or piece of wood or cardboard)
• found objects (anything from the recycling bin, including toilet rolls, nuts, bolts, clothespins, etc.)
• glue (wood glue, Elmers glue, hot glue gun, cool glue gun)
• spray paint 

To start my lessons I like to share photographs of Louise Nevelson's sculptures and have my students study each piece pointing out the different items in each box and try to figure out what each piece used to be.  We talk a lot about what shapes and lines we see (circle, oval, rectangle, curved, straight, etc..) as well as what the concept of abstract means, and also about how different pieces can be layered or placed on top of each other to create designs. 

Next I hand out the bases for our sculptures.  In the past I have used shoe boxes, shoe box lids and picture frames.  I love the look of shoe boxes because they remind me of Louise Nevelson's sculptures the most but I find picture frames work the best with my students because when we dismantle our display and send home our art work, parents tend to toss the shoe boxes but keep the art in the picture frame.

So once we have our base I have the students experiment with some of the found and collected materials and see what they can create by layering and using many different shapes.  We walk around and share our different creations.  I make sure to point out where I see layering, use of different shapes and lines, interesting use of space and use of empty space (this is hard for some).  I find this step is very important and is a must before I bring out the glue, otherwise I end up with a lot of flat pieces as they focus on filling up the space instead of layering and creating an interesting collection. 

After sharing, the students go back and try to add to their sculptures, and then I bring out the glue.  So for most items white glue or wood glue works just fine but with heavier items they need to be hot glued in order to stay.  I usually set up a cool glue gun at each table group and the students share the glue as they need to.  With younger students you might want to have them design the sculpture first and then the teacher or older helper could do the hot glue step.

Once the sculptures are glued and dried, we take them outside and spray paint them.   I like to use a cardboard box in case I get crazy with the spray paint.

 

Once they are dry, they can be displayed as a group or left to be individual art pieces.

This post is part of the Exploring Famous Artists Blog series hosted by Messy Little Monster.
 

Interactive Math center activity with fun Bumblebee Addition

Today I wanted to share another one of my interactive math center activity that I just put up for sale on TPT.  My Bumble Bee Addition center is a fun center that is great addition practice for students.  I usually use this center when I am working one on one or with a small group. 

I have students take turns and choose a strip.  I then have them read the equation and then answer with the sum.  They then place it on the Bumblebee that has the correct sum.

You can purchase this center from my store.  It is very simple to prep, just print out the pages (you can choose color or black and white) and cut out the strips and then if you want you can laminate both the Bumble bee pages and the strips but it not necessary.  You can also add velcro to the strips and the bee if you'd like.

I hope you enjoy them.

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I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more information about this please see our disclosure policy

Ladybug interactive short vowel center activity for kids

Today I wanted to share one of my interactive centers that I just put up for sale on TPT.  My Ladybug Short Vowel center activity  is a fun center that is great phonics practice for students learning about short vowels.  I usually use this center when I am working one on one or with a small group. 

I have students take turns and choose a pictured circle.  I then have them say what is drawn on the circle (eg. sun) and then place it on the ladybug that has the corresponding short vowel sound (eg. U).

You can purchase this center from my store.  It is very simple to prep, just print out the pages (you can choose color or black and white) and cut out the circles and then if you want you can laminate both the ladybug pages and the circles.  You can also add velcro to the circles if you'd like.

I hope you enjoy them.

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Leprechaun tricks and pranks for kids on St. Patrick's day

Do you celebrate St. Patrick's day?  We do!  In fact every year a naughty little leprechaun visits us and plays tricks and pranks on us and causes all kinds of troubles!  Over the years our naughty little leprechaun has created quite the mess.  Every year he does something different but without fail, when we wake up St. Patrick's day morning we are greeted with all kinds of sneaky tricks!

In an attempt to entice our sneaky little friend we made the leprechaun some green cookies in hopes that he would behave and be nice to us.  

But he just ate our cookies and made a mess everywhere he went.

One year he put all the chairs on top of the tables!

He made green footprints and he stacked green cups on the coffee table.

He gathered all the green toys and made a big pile.

He even left green footprints on the toilet, made the toilet water green and made a toilet paper tower!

He tied our shoelaces together.

He left us green juice!

He wrote green messages all over the place.

He hid our shoes in the dryer.

He created an obstacle going down the stairs.

He even created a maze with green yarn.  We couldn't even walk around the living room without having to climb through this obstacle course.

But once we made it through all the obstacles we found his little pot of gold! 

 Hopefully he doesn't cause too much mischief this year!!


We also have a naughty leprechaun that comes to my classroom.  In my St. Patrick's day thematic unit plan you will find ways to engage your students as they get riddles and messages from a leprechaun, build traps, create wanted posters, a class book and much more!

Want to trap a leprechaun??  Check out this handy kit, which comes with a handy book on how to make a trap.




I may get commissions made from purchases through links in this post. For more information about this please see our disclosure policy

Need some great books for your unit?  Check out these great reads!

I may get commissions based on purchases made through links on this site. For more information please see my disclosure page.

My favorite resource for learning to read sight words

This week I wanted to share with you all, my favorite resource for learning to read sight words.  It is a package from Scholastic called Sight word poetry pages.  I love this resource!  I copy each page and compile them into a duo-tang and call them our poetry books (I include other poems as well).  

When I meet with my students in small groups we read the sight word of the day, write the word on the lines, choral read the poem together and then they each read the poem to a partner.  After that we go back and re-read a couple of the poems we have done before. They continue to re-read these poems by reviewing them for home reading work, buddy reading and even independent reading time.  It's a great way to expose kids to sight words.

What is your favorite resource?  



I get commissions made through links in this post. For more information about this please see our disclosure policy

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