photo Leelou Blogs free social icons Facebook blue_zps2updm4ql.png photo Leelou Blogs free icons Twitter_zps3dczfoj1.png photo Leelou Blogs free social icons Youtube yellow _zpsd44hdat2.png photo Leelou Blogs free social icons Pinterest blue_zpsby5ymn4i.png

Monday, October 19, 2015

Pastel Pumpkins!

This week we decided to take a break from all the painting and do a pumpkin drawing lesson.
We started off by practicing on dry erase boards. This is a great way to teach the kids drawing skills, with low stress. We use a "my turn" "your turn" approach. This helps to ensure that most of the kids are watching you as you show them what to do. 
Here are the steps:

Practice:
1. Draw two dots. One near the bottom and one near the top of the board. The two dots should be about the height of the pumpkin you want to draw.
2. Connect the two dots with a curved line on either side (you will end up with a pointy oval).
3. Continue to make your pumpkin "grow" by drawing larger curved lines on either side, starting with the dot on the top and connecting with the dot on the bottom (these are the segments of the pumpkin).
4. Draw a curved stem.
5. Draw leaves (they look like fingers).
5. Draw a curly vine.

Create:
Once the kids are able to do this you can move on with pastels and paper.
1. Using a light colored pastel (we used peach) draw your two dots and connecting lines (segments).
2. Color in each segment with an orange pastel either coloring in with the tip or side of the pastel.
3. Use the yellow pastel to add "highlight" to the pumpkin segments for added dimension
4. Using light green, draw a curved stem, leaves & vines.
5. Color in the stem and leaves using the green pastel.
6. Use a green pastel to shade in below the pumpkin to show that it's sitting on the ground and not floating.

Supplies:
Dry erase boards & markers (or paper and pencil)
Pastels: peach, orange, yellow, light green, dark green
Black paper cut 9" x 12"







Monday, October 12, 2015

Word Family Puzzles

A while ago we purchased this great set of CVC Puzzles from One Sharp Bunch. 


This week we are focusing on the -an family, so the kids will be working with them during guided reading. We printed, laminated and cut apart 6 sets of -an puzzles from the set but needed an easy way to pass them out and store. 

Look what we found at the Dollar King!


They are index card holders. 
Fun colors, easy to open, perfect size for the puzzles and . . .


There's even a spot to put in a label!
Voila!


Monday, October 5, 2015

Mixing Colors to Create Kandinsky Concentric Circles

This week we combined the last two art lessons on primary colors and secondary colors to create our own art! First, we reviewed our lesson from last week on secondary colors using the same Primary and Secondary Notebook Lesson for Smart Board (free at TPT). 




Then, we watched this video about colors.


We introduced our art inspiration for the art project: Kandinsky's Squares with Concentric Circles


Materials: 
Large paper plate palettes
Tempera Paint (red, yellow, blue)
Q-tips
Paper towels
White construction paper squares folded into fourths 8" x 8"

Steps:
1. Students start by painting a small circle in the center of a square. 
2. Students then mix colors to paint different colors and make their circle "grow".
3. When their circles are almost as big as the square, they start a new one and repeat (4 circles total)

Tips:
1. Be sure to tell students not to "scrub" with their q-tips back and forth but rather paint in a circle.
2. Have plenty of q-tips for mixing colors, we went through A LOT!
3. Give each student a baby wipe for easy clean up of hands and tables.