First Grade Bouquet

Our first grades have a Mother's Day Tea soon, that is put on by the music teachers. Here's the contribution from the art room. Each first grader will be making a 3D bouquet to present to their moms. The kids are so excited!

Wang Yani - Chinese Brush Painting

This is an old favorite of a lesson.  I got it either from School Arts or Arts and Activities twenty some years ago.

I used to do it with kindergarten, but this year it seemed to fall flat with them.  Since both grades did Chinese Dragon puppets last time, I continued the Chinese theme with both grades as well.

I showed a PowerPoint to my students, that had photos of Wang Yani as a little girl/artist.  It included photos of many of her monkey paintings.  Then we looked at a short YouTube video of her.

I led them through the steps of painting with a bamboo brush and painting a monkey.  Then I let them paint another picture of their choice of animals.

    

First Grade Architecture

Architecture has been the theme for many of my lessons this quarter.  My first graders reviewed what an architect is.  We looked at Frank Lloyd Wright's "Falling Water,"  and as with most art works that we look at and discuss, the kids were blown away with this design.  During that lesson, the kids looked at the many parts that make up the exterior of a house and then designed their own.  We also discussed that architect considers the land where a building will be built and so the kids drew their landscapes as well.

This lesson was an extension of the Falling Waters lesson.  They designed a 3D model of a house using a paper bag. It was fun seeing the extra goodies they added that made the house their own.

***Here is another architecture related lesson from my TeachersPayTeachers shop. It is based on the paintings and painted buildings by pop artist, James Rizzi.  Though it says "art sub lesson," it is written so that anyone can teach it.

Here are other architecture related lessons that are completely ready to be taught.  All a student needs is paper, pencil and crayons.  A Treehouse for Me and Captivating Castles