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With the help of my wonderful high school student helper , we displayed the vivid Concentric trees and circle paintings today. These details of this colorful lesson was posted this weekend, and can be found  here .  The tempera cakes and bright colors created such happy shapes and landscapes.  This bulletin board is so big. I can display two classes of artwork on it.  First graders will be really proud when they walk to specials today! I am!!

My first graders really need help with their fine motor skills this year. After completing a very successful Kandinsky Concentric Circle painting lesson noted below, I followed up this past week with a tree inspired lesson. Once again, I found my inspiration from  Jen Draw the Line At  and I used her lesson suggestions for this very successful lesson. My student's used Crayola Metallic crayons instead of the Crayola Construction paper crayons and we used juice lids for some bigger circles in the stamping part of the lesson.  Day 1 On day two constructed the trees and circle leaves. I passed out a 12 x 4 inch piece of black paper and had two different sizes of  square paper for the circles. Yes, this was a challenge since we did not use pencil, but we drew with our scissors. Day 2 I will definite repeat lesson for next year! I will be displaying these soon.  Displayed artwork is posted  HERE

My wonderful 5th grade student's just finished a great lesson that my art friend shared with me. The lesson is based on the artwork of Wayne Thiebaud .  Three Machines 1963 The student's had many free choices to create a gum ball still life.  We reviewed the Elements and Principles of art, how to draw forms, and how to create balance. Here were the materials we used in addition to rulers, tracers and a compass. After pencil drawing and sharpie tracing, I put out a buffet of materials to use.  I love texture plates! So do my students.  Dot painting over the crayon was a final option. Google translator??? Yes it was used too.  I got all thumbs up on this lesson. Thanks Mari for being a great friend and sharing your lesson.  Updates!!!   I finally was able to get these displayed with the second grader's cup cakes. I have two big display cases with glass shelves. I was able to displa