Close-up Cows!

This project was inspired by a need to do a project with a farm animal theme that myself and the kids wouldn't be totally bored by! It was also a great way to explore a bit of perspective and foreshortening with some junior students (Year 1-2)

World in A Lightglobe

This was inspired by a picture I saw on a site somewhere! I spoke to the students about Surrealism and how we could create a Surrealistic image by taking two everyday images and putting them out of context by combining them. The kids were really enthusiastic about coming up with all sorts of things that you wouldn't expect to find inside a lightglobe!

Patterns in Art

This was a great one to do after completing a very messy and chaotic project!

After looking at the types of patterns we could see in art, the students used these elements to create a radial design - I found it useful to get them to work outwards from a dot in the centre of their paper.

Laminated Ink Turtles

Painted ink turtles - put into A3 laminate sheet with torn tissue paper background - added 'bubbles' from leftover ink paintings - laminated and displayed on classroom windows.

Mixed Media Peacocks

Quick and easy project done with permanent markers and watercolour pencils.....we also painted the background with ink and added circular sequins into the 'eye' of each feather.

Uluru in Oil Pastel and Ink

I have done this project with Year 3's to Year 7's - great way to teach blending and perspective. We first looked a quite a few photos of Uluru and talked about the variety of colours we could see.

Pencil in a horizon line and Uluru outline

Colour Uluru with oil pastels. Add outlines of blades of grass in the foreground.

Colour the foreground.

Paint the sky with blue ink......these look gorgeous when displayed!

Woven Dream catchers

After looking at a number of examples of dream catchers, we made our own using the centre of the plate and lots of different coloured wool. These are heaps of fun and look amazing when they are done....but.....they do need a lot of prep if working with younger kids (making the looms, cutting and sorting the right lengths of wool and untangling looms every 2 and a half minutes!!)

When they were finished, we punched some holes in the bottom of the plate and used paper clips to add feathers and beads.

**I have had a few enquires about exactly how to make the dream catchers....so here are a couple more pics...

I have found the best 'needles' are made from an extra large paper clip that you bend into shape and tape the two end together - that way it doesn't catch on the wool as you weave.

Setting up a table with pre-cut lengths of wool is a lifesaver when working with younger students!

Jonathan - Year 3

Ocean Layers and Coral Reefs

LOve this project! - and I have done variations of this in classes from Grade 2 to Grade 6 and it fits in beautifully with Water, Oceans, Animal or Environmental themes. It is also a great way to look at tones and shades and introduce working with mixed media.

We always start with looking at the different layers of the ocean and how the colour changes depending on the depth of the water. Students paint the layers with blue ink - they have to work on diluting the ink to change the colour for each layer.

We then look at the earth and soil around the water. Students use 'earthy' coloured oil pastels to colour.

We then use a pencil to draw on some 'coral' and then use pva glue to stick on grains of uncooked rice.

..and then painted the coral with bright acrylic paint...

...and final touches - added a bit of glitter, an ocean animal and some clouds...

Collagraph Trees with printed leaves

I did this project with Year 1's and 2's. First we used a black wax crayon, some cereal box cardboard and a piece of A4 black paper. Students drew a tree design on their cardboard and then cut it out and stuck it onto their black paper.

 We used black only because it made the tree stand out and this could easily become a second piece of artwork on its own!

We then used our black crayon to make a rubbing onto a piece of A4 drawing paper. We then talked about warm and cool colour and students had to decide if they were going to make a 'summer' or 'winter' tree. Students painted the background of their trees with ink.

To make the leaves of the tree, we drew leaf shapes onto kitchen sponges, cut them out and printed a page of leaves in either warm or cool colours. We then outlined and added detail to the leaves with a permanent marker.

To finish off, we cut out the leaves and glued them around our tree. We had also added patterns into the background of our tree and mounted it onto a coloured piece of paper. This project took a number of sessions to complete but the kids were really proud of their finished artworks!

Art Trees & Art Houses

I wanted to expose the students to a number of different artists. For our Art Houses, we looked at Mondrian, Kandinsky and Miro.

We used a paper house template from:  http://thetoymaker.com/Toypages/35Habitat/35Habitat.html

The students then choose which artist the\y would be inspired by - they added and coloured their design on the paper house template, then cut it out and put it together!

We then followed the same design process, but looked at Georgia O'Keefe, Gustav Klimt and Optical Art and contructed an 'Art Tree' using a cardboard roll and cereal box cardboard.