Rockin' Penguins

This was another lesson inspired by the winter concert this year!  What says winter concert more than some cute penguins playing electric guitars?  So my second graders got to work!

Step 1:  The penguin

For sake of time, I made templates for the outline of the penguin and the arms.  The students traced these on their paper but were still responsible for drawing the inside lines (defining the black and white areas & the face)  

The students then painting the black and orange area.  We let the white paper be the white of the penguin's body but you could always choose to have them paint this part or make the penguin more realistic looking by adding some grey shadows in the white.  

* The arms are done separately so that when the entire picture gets assembled the arms can be arranged to appear as though they are holding the guitar

Reflective City Scenes

During this lesson my third grade students explored warm vs. cool colors in their watercolor painting backgrounds.  I gathered the students around my demo table to show them how to blend colors without puddles of water or dry brushstrokes everywhere.  I had the students fold their paper in half first to establish their horizon line.

Snowflake Snowmen

This year the Third Grade Winter Concert was titled, Snow Day so in spirit, I decided to have the third graders design Snowmen out of Snowflakes!  

The first step was designing the backgrounds.  For inspiration, I read the students the book Snow Bear then the students began to draw on white paper with white crayon.  I encouraged the students to press hard and color anything they wanted to be white.

Next we did a watercolor resist by painting Cool Colors over the entire paper and voila!  Their snowy scenes appeared!  (some more than others!)