Stained Glass Europe Study

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am doing "stained glass" with all the kids for our European International study.

Before the lesson, I showed them this clip from Sister Wendy. It explained  briefly about some English stained glass and tidbit of history.

The first step was to get clear plastic/acetate (report covers and sheet protectors work great for letter sized-but for larger ones I used large sheets of 5mil plastic from TAP)

I mixed up some white glue and water and then had the kids arrange small scraps of tissue paper on the plastic and really make sure that the paper was nice and wet and gluey. I let these dry, and made some black card-stock frames. Final touch was black sharpie marker to outline shapes and other details.

Studying Europe

Every year, the school picks a geographic theme for their International Study. This year it is Europe (it usually is a  continent or general area of the world)  I try to do some art lessons that cater to that theme and also provide decoration for the annual "International Luncheon" where the parents bring in food from that region and they have a  celebration.

For European art I did several things:

The younger kids make paper Dala Horse from Sweden. This was to emphasize, cutting, pasting and decorating. The real horses are wooden sculptures, but these were made from red and yellow tagboard, cut and then decorated in a  folk art style.

The 2-4 grade did "coats of arms" shield that they made using elements that meant something to them or told a story. I told them about heraldry and the meanings of certain colors, shapes and symbols. They did this on paper bag paper to make them look old.

All the kids did "stained glass" which is a traditional European church/castle art form. We watched a quick Sister Wendy video on stained glass history and then the kids used tissue paper and white glue to collage the colors onto clear sheets of acetate. We will fame them in black tagboard in gothic and romanesque window shapes.

Christmas Art 2012

It seems like the whole month of November and into December was devoted to Christmas ornaments and decor that got used for the Holiday Home tour decorating the school. Here's a roundup of those items:

 Popsicle stick snowflakes got mentioned in an earlier post. Smaller versions of these got painted white and placed on the Christmas Tree.

 The K-2 class made the old standby of paper plate snowmen. Always a fun project. They decorated the school lobby.

 We also made handprint Santas with red, white and beige paint, decorated with some buttons and cotton.

 The younger kids used popsicle sticks to make triangles that we turned into Christmas Tree frames for a photo. Super easy, but fun!

Snowflakes from popsicle sticks

Getting ready for Christmas already! In fact this project will be decoration for our Holiday Home Tour which benefits the school. We have 6 homes decorated and the school itself. So if you like home tours buy your tickets here!

 On to the snowflakes...This is a multi-stage project and the first step was having the kids construct snowflakes from popsicle sticks..lots of them. I had them use white glue since it allows for them to adjust the design, eventhough it does not dry as fast as hot glue. The fun part has been to see how different the kids approach this concept. In the end there will be K-6th snowflakes, and all grade levels can do this.

After all the snowflakes dried, I spray painted them red. This is  step best done by adults. Smaller snowflakes, I painted white and the kids will glitter them for the Christmas Tree.

We just put them up in the high walls of the School lobby and they really add a graphic punch and some kid-art quirkiness. Love them!

Sunflower Preschool

 Pleasant Hill Christian Welcomes Sunflower Preschool to its newly renovated portable. The PHCS kids have done some wonderful sunflower art over the years and I put a selection of that on banners to welcome the new kids and brighten up the building. Have fun!

Drawing the Eye

With the older kids, we did an exercise in drawing the eye. They used pencil, and the goal was to breakdown the parts of the eye and try to draw what they saw in the mirror and not what they think an eye looks like...paying special attention to shading, shape and light/dark.

Owl collage

 A favorite of mine during the Fall are owls, which also seem to be popular these days.  They seem kinda autumnal, cute and aren't they supposed to represent knowledge?

This owl, which I did with my K-4th graders, used some collage elements. I first copied some sheet music (a song about birds) onto two different earthy colored papers, and then collected some newspapers and scrap paper.

The kids were told to cut a heart out of the music paper and that forms the body. You fold down the point to form a beak and up the round parts to form wings.  Then tear the newspaper into little bits for belly feathers.

Its amazing how much personality you get from the kids!

Pointilism Fall Trees

Its fall and its time to start giving the K-1 class a bit of Art History. Pointilism is one of my favorites and the materials a re dead simple. Q-tips and some paint!

I told the kids a bit about Pointilism and the artist George Suerat, and then quickly went to the paint. They could draw lines with the black paint but had to use up and down dots for the leaves.

So simple, but so graphic!

I'm always blown away by how differently each child interprets a project.

Handprint fall leaves

After the K-1 class finished their paper self portraits, they did some autumnal handprint leaves.

I had them trace their hands with black marker and make sure they overlapped to create interesting positive and negative shapes. Within these shapes they were to fill with different colors of warm fall color: red, orange, yellow, brown etc.  This was again a lesson on warm colors.  Plus it was a good test of patience and ability to listen!