Second Grade Projects From My Long-Term Sub Gig

 Here are some of the projects from my long-term sub gig that appear in the collage here so that you had a bit more info on them...ENJOY!! For the background about where I've been/what I've been doing lately, scroll to the end of the post...

OK, I just think this is the cleverest solution to the "Beautiful OOPS" project
described below--this tiger is just TOO cute!!
Check out the post below to see how it was made...

Second Grade Projects From My Long-Term Sub Gig:

Week 1: Winter Landscapes (1 day) Original Post here.

A getting-to-know-you project.

Students used crayons to draw a winter landscape focusing on foreground, background and atmospheric perspective. They then added watercolor to their work (watercolor resist) to add a colorful sky (sunset, nighttime, etc.).

Week 2: van Gogh Vases (1 day) 
This one was from my mentor teacher, Meagan Read, at Riddle Brook Elementary School, but she may have found it here.

Inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers

Students used Sharpies to create radial designed “sunflowers” and used oil pastels to add color to their work. Students then cut out their flowers and individual student work was mounted together to create a whole-class composition displayed in the hallway.

Oops, a little glare on the reproduction in the middle...
This display used two bulletin boards. This is display #1.

Display #2. Each second grade class had a vase of flowers.
My mentor teacher did this project with grade 1, this was done with grade 2,
but I think it could be done with a variety of grade levels.

A close up of one of the compositions.
The "table" is dollar store contact paper--easy!!

Week 3 and 4: Beautiful Oops! (2 day) 
This one was from my mentor teacher, Meagan Read, at Riddle Brook Elementary School

Inspired by the book, “Beautiful Oops!” by Barney Saltzberg

Students looked at the book, “Beautiful Oops!” by Barney Saltzberg and then moved through a series of stations where they made six “Oops!” on their papers.

• Table 1: tear or cut a scrap of warm colored paper and glue to your background paper (up to 2 times).
• Table 2: tear or cut a scrap of newspaper and glue to your background paper (up to 2 times).
• Table 3: tear or cut a scrap of cool colored paper and glue to your background paper (up to 2 times).
• Table 4: Dip the side of a cardboard scrap into paint and stamp onto paper to make a line (up to 6 times)
• Table 5: Dip a mug into paint and stamp onto paper to make a ring (up to 3 times)
• Table 6: Write your name on your background paper and then trace a circle tracer onto your background paper and cut it out (make a hole in your paper--1 time).

The next week, we looked at the book again and discussed how we could turn mistakes into masterpieces. Students then used markers and crayons (and imagination and innovation) to transform their mistakes into wonderful art.

The write-up that was part of the display.

A cute little guy!

"The Big Monster:"
This is me, the big monster.
I like to roar--it's fun.
I am roaring now.

"The Rainforest:"
The rain is in the trees and (dropping?) from the tree. 

"The Snowman Winter Clean-up"

The finished display got a TON of attention by staff and students alike.
It was colorful and creative and I often saw people stopping and reading
the captions written by the students about their work.
Note: If you are looking for cookie-cutter, pretty projects, this many not be
the project for you--but it is fun and creative!

Week 5 and 6: Juan Miro’s Fantastical Creatures! Check out my original post here.

Inspired by the work of Juan Miro that Mrs. Pettus saw on her trip to Chicago

Students looked at the work of Juan Miro and noticed the shapes and lines he used to create his images. Students then used dice to randomly select pieces and parts for their own creatures and fantasy compositions. Once the creatures, shapes and lines were drawn with oil pastel, students added a wash of watercolor (water resist) to the background to add mood. This was a wonderful project to follow the Beautiful Oops since students needed to adapt and use their imagination.

Week 7: Week 7: Kandinsky group mural Check out the original post here.

Inspired by Kandinsky’s color studies

Students used paint to create a composition of concentric rings based on the color studies by Kandinsky. Individual student work was displayed with other grade levels to create a multi-age group mural for the hallway.

A close-up of the individual 6" squares all glued together
onto the larger roll of paper using Elmer's glue (a dot in each corner).

The finished mural. Beautiful!!

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Backstory for this post:

So, it's been a busy Spring for me since I finished student teacherin' in December--I subbed a bit in preschool, kindergarten, elementary and high school and then landed a wonderful 6 1/2 weeks long-term sub gig at an elementary school nearby teaching art to grades K-5. What a blast I had--the students and staff at Fairgrounds rock and I was sad to go (it's hard to stop doing something you love when your next big thing isn't settled upon yet). Since then, I haven't blogged much because I've been daily subbing and working on my dang art teacher portfolio (more on that in a future post or ten). Check the sidebar (over on the right side of the blog) for other posts in this series (k-5 at Fairgrounds Elementary School). ENJOY!!

Starry Night, Step-By-Step

Van Gogh is one of the world's most famous artists and it seems that every art educator has his/her own projects already with which they introduce this fabulous artist. There are so many great projects out there and van Gogh's body of work is so large that it was hard for me to choose just one van Gogh-inspired project to do with my Modern Art class. I finally chose van Gogh's "Starry Night." While this is by no means a new and innovative project, I thought it was great. This is how I tackled it with my students:

The basic elements of a Starry Night: sky, buildings, hill, and tree.

We looked at a couple of books about the artist and noticed all of the colors he used in his paintings. We noted that sometimes his color choices didn't even make sense, like when he painted a sky pink! How unusual! We also noticed how he used little dashes or short brush strokes to add color and that our eyes mixed the colors in these areas. These short brush strokes also created movement in his work (similar to how the repetitive lines in our Degas pieces created movement). We also saw that he used VERY thick application of paint in his work--sometimes spreading the paint with a little spatula called a palette knife. WOW!

Poor Vincent sold very few paintings and drawings during his lifetime, because people of the 1890's didn't quite appreciate his vibrant colors. Today his paintings are some of the most famous and most beloved in the world (and sell for millions).

We looked closely at van Gogh's Starry Night and talked about our observations. We then had reproductions of the painting in front of us so we could see how van Gogh would create each section: sky, hill, tree, and buildings. Using the real painting as a guide allows the children to really see the work and bring their own pieces to another level. The children were required to use AT LEAST THREE COLORS in every section they were creating. That pushed them to think of color combos that would work for each section. Some of their color choices were amazing and inspiring.

Van Gogh-Inspired Starry Night

Supplies:

• Reproduction of van Gogh's "Starry Night"
• One 9" x 12" piece of watercolor paper
• Masking Tape
• Cardboard to tape the watercolor paper to
• Gold and silver star stickers
• Crayons 
• Watercolor paints & brush
• Water bucket & paper towels
• Construction paper rectangles: Dark blue, 4 1/2" x 12"; Brown, 4" x 9"; Black, 4 1/2" x 6"
• Scissors
• Glue stick

Directions:

1. Tape the watercolor paper to the cardboard on all sides so that the paper doesn't buckle when wet.

2. Use the crayon to draw a moon on the watercolor paper. Make sure your crayon marks are nice a heavy because we'll be adding washes of watercolor and you want them to show up through the watercolor paint.

3. Put 5-6 silver and gold stars on the watercolor paper in the sky area. 

4. Use your crayons to add swirls and dashes all around the moon and stars. Use "Starry Night" as reference. Use at least three colors in these light areas.

5. Use dashes in the dark "blue" area of the sky. Use at least three colors in this sky area. Don't color in the entire sky area with crayon, you'll be filling in the sky in the next step. Keep pressing firmly with the crayon.

6. Once your entire sky has all of the dashes and swirls you want on it, use watercolors to add a yellow glow around the stars and moon. If the yellow is too much for you, dab the paint on the paper with a piece of paper towel. Then add blue paint to the rest of the sky. You can blend the yellow and blue areas of the sky to make a bit of green (that seems to happen in van Gogh's piece). Cover the entire paper with watercolor. The bottom couple of inches will be covered by your construction paper hills, but you don't want to have a gap where the sky ends and your hills begin. Set the sky aside to dry.

7. Create the ground: grab your dark blue construction paper rectangle (4 1/2" x 12"). Use a dark crayon to draw the hills for your painting. Using additional crayons, add dashes of color (at least three colors!) to the hills. You can use a bit of watercolor in streaks as well, but don't soak the paper. Cut the hills out and set aside.

8. Create the cypress tree: grab your brown construction paper rectangle (4" x 9"). Use a dark crayon to draw the tree for your painting. Using additional crayons, add dashes of color (at least three colors!) to the tree. You can use a bit of watercolor in streaks as well, but don't soak the paper. Cut the tree out and set aside.

9. Create the buildings: same deal as steps 7 & 8 above, but use the black paper rectangle (4 1/2" x 6"). You can use at least three colors here as well. The watercolor streaks and crayon will show up on the back paper. I had the children do at least two buildings. Cut them out and set aside.

10. Once your background is dry, glue the hill, tree, and buildings to it.

WOW! You're done! Great job!