Owls in the Night

In Sights and Sounds of the Seasons we were inspired by this fabulous art lesson from Deep Space Sparkle of Torn Paper Owls.  To begin, I read excerpts from Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, which tells the story of a girl who goes owl sighting with her father on a cold winter's night to see her first owl. 


As we enter a time of more nighttime, owls are more likely to be spotted since they hunt at night since most are nocturnal.  We learned about different features of owls that make them unique including their huge, staring eyes and their little ears that provide them with their keen hearing.  The children also agreed that while they're cute, owls can be quite scary, especially since they have the ability to fly almost silently.   We talked about how their soft flight feathers muffle the sound of their wings making them excellent nighttime hunters. 

This project was completed in one hour and used the following materials:
18"x12" Dark Blue Construction Paper
Oil Pastels-white, yellow, and black
Scraps of owl colors-brown, gray, white, black, orange, yellow
Precut circles in various sizes for the eyes (older students can cut their own!)
White glue
Scissors

1. To begin students learned how suprisingly simple it was to draw an owl. With black pastel start with two large circles for the eyes, add a triangle beak, then a head with little pointy ears.  Next add a large "U" for the body, and then legs and talons (the students loved this word!).  The wings can be drawn spread out in flight or perched. A branch could be added if the students wanted to.

2. White and yellow oil pastels were used to add stars, a moon, and/or clouds to the dark blue sky.

3.  Owl colored paper scraps were torn to make up the feathers of the owl.  We did the body and head the same color first, then the wings a different color (this helps them stand out).  Glue was added to the areas in sections and the feathers were added to cover all the blue paper.

4. Next students selected 3 different sized circles for the eyes (some chose to cut their own out). These were layed with the smallest on the top and largest on the bottom.  The eyes are the most important part of the owl so they have to stand out!

5. Beaks and legs were either cut or torn and then glued on.  The branch was also covered in torn paper at this time.

The students had a blast creating these very special owls and were proud to show them to their parents!

 
 

 

 

If I Were a Tree

Before starting this mixed media project, we read one of my favorite books,

   "If I Were a Tree" by Dar Hosta

As you can see the illustrations are lovely and are made by collaging colorful papers and adding metallic embellishments.  This would be a great project to do with painted papers, but we chose to stick to acrylics on canvas boards to save time. Before starting, children were asked "If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be," which is the main thematic line of this story.  They sketched their tree designs and began painting with acrylics.  After these paintings dried, metallic paint markers and shiney paper collaging was used to add a whimsical touch. Enjoy our fantastic trees.

  

 

 

 

Green Cities

In Art Through Children's Literature we read The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton.  In this Caldecott Medal Winning storybook, a little house lives happily in the country.  Personification is used to express how the seasons come and go, delighting the little house.  One day a road and houses are built in the little house's countryside home.  Soon a whole city is constructed and the little house is upset by all the noise of trains, subways, cars, and bustling people.  She's disappointed by all the smoke that ruined her peaceful country home.

 After reading this story, we discussed how cities need to be built for future populations to live and visit.  We talked about some ways we can make this cities "greener" and came up with ideas for what future cities might look like.  Students came up with fabulous ideas, like underwater transportation, flying cars, and climate controlled biomes for people to live in so they don't have to travel to warmer places to vacation. 

Here's how we did it:

Une:  We drew our green cities on watercolor paper  with pencils (could jump right into black sharpies, but I wanted kids to spend the time making extraordinary details).  Imagination was encouraged and the use of groundlines, waterlines, buildings, transportation...etc was discussed.

Deux: I pulled out the tube watercolors, which I usually use with the older students, in various shades of green, yellow, and blue watercolors to paint them. I showed the students how to mix colors then dared them to create as many shades of green, turquoise, lime, chartreuse, aqua, and teal they could! 

Trois: Once dried completely, we finished these paintings by outlining all our lines in black sharpies. 

Eddie

Gaia

Victoria

Nicholas

Megan

Adric

Aidan

Chloe

Luke

Maddy

William

Yula

Millie's Marvellous Hat!

In Art Through Children's Literature we read Satoshi Kitamura's Millie's Marvellous Hat.  In this book, Millie cannot afford a beautiful feather hat that she sees in a store window.  The clerk remembers that he has a special one that's perfect for her budget. This imaginary hat can be any size, shape, or color that she prefers. As she walks down the street wearing it, Millie is inspired. Soon she has a hat like a peacock, then a cake, next a flower, and then a fountain.

Children were inspired to use their own imaginations to create a hat that displayed their very favorite things. 

First:  Using white paper and black sharpies, students drew a simple portrait of themselves.  We chose to keep the portraits simple and black and white so the colorful hats could take center stage. Another option would be to cut the face out of the white paper, glue it to black and then add the hat.  That's how I'd do them next time!

Second:  Next using various colored paper, metallic paper, sequins, feathers, tissue paper, and buttons, children were free to create their very own special hat. Below are some examples of this fun, imaginative project. 

Kenna

Eddie

Chloe

Aidan

Luke

Victoria

Jack

Maddy

Megan

Nicholas