Re-designing Mona Lisa

This was a great end of term project - each student was given a basic outline of the Mona Lisa. They then had to reinvent her - they could do this by changing the colour scheme, the background, adding new elements or a combination of all three. It produced some very interesting results!

Winter Sticky Tape Trees

I have also done the summer/warm colour version of this project and it always proves popular with the kids - something magical about peeling off the stick tape I think! We used basic masking tape to create the trees and then painted over with blue ink and added salt to create the snow/starry effect (this has to be done quite quickly as the salt only reacts with the ink while it's wet). If you don't have ink, you could also use food colouring added to water or diluted acrylic paint.

YouTube Demo Video

Step 1: Use masking tape on a piece of A3 paper to create 3 or 4 'trees'. Use straight pieces of tape for the trunks and rip smaller pieces for the branches. Cut off any edges that hang over the edges of your paper - rather than folding them over.

Step 2: Use your ink, food dye or diluted acrylic paint to paint a wash over the entire piece of paper (you can paint straight over the sticky tape)- add some sprinkles of salt straight away onto the wet ink/paint and leave it to dry.

Step 3: VERY carefully peel the tape off (make sure the paper is completely dry and you can also brush off the dried salt).

Step 4: Use a black fineliner, sharpie pen, felt pen or permanent marker to add patterns into each tree (small, intricate patterns and a mix of pen thicknesses are extra effective!)

Koi Fish

This was such a relaxing project! I worked with a group of Year 6-7 ESL students who had a Ocean classroom theme. We looked at lots of pictures and photographs of Koi fish and talked about the unique patterns that each one had. Each student came up with their own design and then painted with ink. The results were stunning!

Tinting and Shading- skills worksheet

I put together this worksheet after seeing one similar on Pinterest (I will site the original post when I find it again). The kids seem to have enjoyed doing this a lot more than I thought they might - and it makes for a great assessment piece.

 *Tip: instead of using plastic mixing palettes, use scraps of cardboard. The students who finished early then can go on to create a mini painting on their palette!

 This version I adjusted for my younger students by having a simpler image for them to paint.

Rainbow Seahorses - inspired by Eric Carle

Love the colour in Eric Carle's books and there are endless possibilities for projects by using them for inspiration! This project came about after looking at his book, 'Mister Seahorse'. I'm currently doing it with a junior ESL class (due to a lack of language skills, the students are using a seahorse template - with other classes, I would get the students to draw their own!)

 *Tip: paint over the torn tissue paper with a layer of watered down PVA glue - this will ensure the paper doesn't come off once it has dried and it gives it a nice 'shiney' look.

Now onto the ocean background.......we used wax crayons to add lots of reeds and sea grass and some of the fish that were in the 'Mister Seahorse' book. We then painted on the background with blue ink. Next lesson: adding our decorated seahorses!

Van Gogh Sunflower Bowls

Well, school holidays are just about to finish and this is one of my project ideas for this coming term (I will post more photos when we manage to finish them!)

Update: I have just finished this project with a group of Year 4's and 5's - the results are stunning and they really love their finished bowls!

Indian Elephants

I did this project with a class of Year 1's and 2's. We just practiced drawing elephants for the first session until they had built up a bit of confidence. They then outlined their final drawing with a black ink pen. As soon as they finished outlining, they used a fine paint brush and water to make the ink 'bleed' and turn the elephant a lovely soft grey. At this stage we looked at lots of photographs of brightly decorated Indian elephants and discussed what we could use to decorate our elephants. Most students chose to use paper mosaic squares, sequins and metallic paint. Next time I think we will also use ink to paint the background a bright colour.

Paper Plate Birds

This idea came from from another Western Australian art teachers blog....I loved it so much that I have done it with a few different classes since! (from Year 2;s to Year 5's).
You can find Anne's blog here: useyourcolouredpencils

Mixed-up Minibeasts

Another way to create a project using paper plates! I came up with this while doing my teaching prac in a Year 1-2 class who had a Minibeast theme. I wanted to make them a bit more unusual so I asked the students to take different parts of different minibeasts and put them together to create a new creature. We used a large paper plate for the head and coloured card for the body. Students could then choose how they wanted to decorate their 'bug'