Tree of Life: 6th Grade

In sixth grade, we studied movement. I have always thought that Klimt's Tree of Life looks like it's moving! My students agreed and we set to each creating our own Tree of Life. Students used tempera paint and oil pastels to create these beautiful, unnatural trees!

I wish this student had been able to finish! He was working very steadily and doing an amazing job!

Bare Trees with 1st Grade

I did a project with my 1st graders yesterday on Halloween. It was a really bad idea because they were completely crazy with thoughts of costumes, candy, and fun times. Luckily, they came to art class immediately after their fall party in the classroom. Seriously, my 1st graders were crazy-town yesterday! They finished the project in about five minutes. Not okay.

I searched Pinterest (yes, I finally gave in) for a quick, filler project and found this. I thought drawing trees would be a cute project even if none of them ended up looking like trees are supposed to.

Let me just say, my 1st graders blew me away!! These turned out so well!!

I drew a tree under the ELMO document reader using the letters "Y" and "V." I used crayons only; crayons are my favorite. Here is my example:

Here are the awesome trees made by my talented 1st grade students!

I'm so proud and impressed! I may have used this as a filler lesson, but I think now that I should develop it into a bigger lesson! These look so cool!!

2nd Grade: Autumn Trees

What better way to bring in the fall than with a project about the trees and their autumn leaves?!

I started this lesson out by passing out a piece of construction paper. I told students to pick a crayon: brown, tan, gray, black, etc. On the board I demonstrated how to draw a tree as the students did each step along with me.

1. Draw two parallel, vertical lines that go from the bottom to about the middle of the page.

2. Curve the lines outwards, away from each other

3. Use "V's" to create lots of branches.

Obviously, I am not going into too much detail on here since I'm sure other art teachers already know how to draw a tree!! If not, there are many tutorials online.

For the tissue paper, I used red, orange, and yellow. Each student was to use all three of these colors. I only instructed students to put leaves around the bottom of the tree and on the branches of the tree. Some students, however, wanted to make falling leaves. This I allowed. Any time that a students wants to be creative with their art, my heart leaps with joy and I nearly shout "YES, DO THAT!"

Here are the steps for applying tissue paper:

1. Rip off a small piece of tissue paper.

2. put a pencil (eraser end) down in the middle of the ripped tissue.

3. crinkle the excess tissue up, around the pencil. Hold it like that.

4. Put a dot of glue where you want the "leaf" to go.

5. Push the tissue/pencil down onto the glue, let go, and lift up! Don't flatten the tissue!!

These turn out REALLY nice. I did these with my students during student teaching. It's definitely a lesson I want to keep doing!

Here are the final products displayed in the hallway!!

Some students added tire swings, birds, etc. I love them all!

Close-up view!

Aren't these great?!