Asian Plum Blossoms

For the Springtime and as study of Asian painting, I had the younger kids do a study of the plum blossoms, with black paint branches, pink tissue paper and green "celadon" paper vases.

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.

Snowmen from 2011

Another catchup post from the best of last year's projects!

Tissue Paper Snowmen

Paper plate snowmen

Week 28: Georgia O'Keefe Flowers

Continuing to study famous artists, we turned to Georgia O'Keefe and her iconic flowers. Instead of painting these beauties, I had the kids use tissue paper and watered down glue, so that the result would be as bold and graphic as possible!

I started by showing the students several of O'Keefe's most famous flowers and pointing out that she made her images bold, colorful and really close-up. I wanted the kids to fill their paper as much as possible. The tissue paper allowed for some nice layering of color and bold forms.

Several kids made their art 3-D by crumpling or using paper that tuck out more. I even hd a few cupcake liners that make nice flower centers.

Week 22: Arbor Day tree blossoms

Wow, its already 2/3 of the way through the year!  My younger son had to make a 100th day collection of items, and our thoughts are already turning to Summer. But its still the blustery transition between Winter and Spring. One minute it's raining, the next its sunny. The trees are also noticing this change and beginning to burst into bloom.


I was thinking of doing this project later in April during Apple Blossom time, since this area is know for its apple blossoms. But the area around the school is awash in the gloriously delicates pink blossoms of the plum trees.  The first week of March is also Arbor Day in California due the birthday of local plant scientist Luther Burbank on March 7.  So I was able to wrap three lessons in one!

I had contemplated doing the classic blown ink tree trunk and branches, but we have so little time and limited cleanup ability, so I opted for a faster and cleaner black/brown marker trunk. I gave each child light blue paper and had them draw the trunk. For the younger kids, I advised that tracing their arm and hand make good trees.

After that was done, they used crumpled pink tissue paper to make the blossoms. Some used other colors or  green paper for the ground. Many kids also remembered the technique where you wrap the tip of pencil with the tissue and then glue. That works well, but just crumpling the tiny pieces of tissue works just as well.

These turned out real nice and are very Springy!

Week 15: Christmas villages

Being the last of the three December art classes, I wanted to continue the Christmas feel, but throw in something a bit new.  We did cards, snowmen, snowflakes and some watercolor, but for this project I combined the ever popular "stained glass" theme with some architecture. Voila...Christmas houses and villages.



I wanted to these to stand up in a window, so I had the kids fold a piece or two of brown paper into thirds or fourths-whichever worked best. Accordian fold is the best.  This resulted in vertical sections of paper that they could draw some whimsical buildings.  I had them cut out the roof and window shapes. Then they could glue some colored tissue paper behind the holes for colorful windows.


I love the "scool" and the petstore. This was a Kindergartener, with maybe some help from an older writer?

I did try to emphasize the various types of roof shapes and show them photos of Amsterdam row houses and San Francisco vistorians.

These can really turn out well.  For a more gingerbread look, you could have them do all the detail drawing with white paint, but the black markers look fine too.  I used construction paper which is a bit thin and light.  If I could get any supplies, I might try a stiffer paper stock, but not too thick for cutting purposes.


Funny thing, was that the younger kids had no trouble at all with this relatively complex concept of drawing and then cutting. They had wilder imaginations and I think fewer inhabitions. But they did have trouble with teh concept of gluing the tissue paper on the back of the houses ;-)

Merry Christmas to all and to all an artistic night!!