Skip to main content

Welcome Spring



We are so ready for Spring. While the Sunflower isn't a spring flower in North Texas, the color is really warming us up. I changed my 2nd grade mixed media sunflower lesson from years past after seeing
 Patty's lesson on Deep Space Sparkle. I used some of her ideas with regards to the painting and stems.
 I start my lesson with my favorite book, Camille and the Sunflowers. 


The student's make a symmetrical vase the first day on folded 6"x 6" paper using a wax transfer method 
with china markers.  We painted them with Prang watercolor trays also on the first day.


Then cut and glue the vase to the 12" x 18" paper, or if you have had ice days like we did, I cut and glued them so we could make up some time. 


This is where I got my idea for Patty's blog. I used the Dick Blick concentrated watercolors and 80 lb sulfur paper to paint the table and the wall. The color was amazing. 
In the past  they used the Prang trays of watercolor for this part. 

Instead of using cut paper for the flowers the student's observed my lovely faux sunflowers and drew their own with china marker, no pencil, and colored with oil pastels. In the past I had my student's draw the flower with the stem and glue them on. It was a cutting challenge. 


Today we cut and glued the finished flowers to the background! It was so exciting to work on those cutting and gluing skills as well as showing space by overlapping the flowers. 









These flowers were growing down the street from me this past summer! 

My favorites just as they were for Van Gogh!









Labels:

Comments

  1. Mrs. KuropasMarch 30, 2014 at 7:01 PM

    These are bright and beautiful! Thanks for posting!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beth CarterMarch 30, 2014 at 9:43 PM

    The colors really popped. I plan on using these paints again. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ShellyPApril 13, 2014 at 10:13 AM

    These are really great! I bought Van Gogh's Cat at our book fair last year, what a great book made by kids!

    ReplyDelete
  4. MichelleApril 29, 2014 at 9:25 PM

    This is stunning lesson! I love the combination of watercolor, oil pastel, and cut paper. Just to clarify the steps, it looks like you had them draw the stems above the vase with green oil pastel before painting the wall background. Is that correct? What directions did you give them to draw the stems? Had they already drawn their flowers so they could coordinate their placement?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Beth CarterMay 6, 2014 at 10:19 PM

      I posted a reply below. Sorry for the delay.

      Delete
  5. Beth CarterMay 6, 2014 at 10:18 PM

    Yes they drew the stems and painted with water colors. I asked them to draw a minimum of three.. They drew and cut the flowers the next day.

    ReplyDelete
  6. MichelleMay 9, 2014 at 12:17 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  7. MichelleMay 9, 2014 at 12:29 AM

    OK, two more questions - First, what size paper did they draw the sunflowers on? It looks like each sunflower was drawn on a separate square piece of sulphite paper. The pieces look to be about 3x3 or 4x4 inches. Is that about right? Secondly, what is a wax transfer method, and how does it work? Thank you very much!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Beth CarterJune 1, 2014 at 4:58 PM

      The sunflowers were were drawn on a 4 x 6 paper. The vase was made on a square sheet of paper folded in half. Draw half of the vase on the fold. Trace with china marker then refold with the black drawing in side the folded paper. Rub over it with the scissor handles to transfer the drawing to the other side of the paper. You then draw over the transfer to make it look like the other side.

      Delete
  8. UnknownMarch 24, 2016 at 8:49 AM

    Did you instruct students to draw flowers that were not straight on? I noticed they have one straight on, and a couple where you see different views? Just wondering how you explained, demonstrated this?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for visiting and leaving a comment. Beth

Most popular post

Kandinsky Trees

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 ...
6 comments
Read more

Monet's Pond

The Dallas Museum of Art  has a wonderful   Monet Painting  in a beautiful gold frame which inspired me to create this lesson for our Big Art Day which is fast approaching in Texas schools.  For our Big Art day this year I have a Theme....Circle Art!  Themes are the way to go when organizing events.  I love this new lesson that was inspired by one of my favorite artists,  and two favorite bloggers:  Painted Paper and Cassie Stephen's who also use themes.  I ordered the 10 inch cardboard circle rounds for this lesson, the same size  Cassie used in her Dot Day Art .  School Specialty has various sizes. The kids loved painting on this canvas instead of paper.  We read about Monet's garden and look at prints of his masterpieces. I even show them some of my pictures that I took when I   visited his garden in France.   On day one, we painted the pond and the water ...
24 comments
Read more

Clay and Weaving!

I'm brave, I tried a new lesson again.... I can say as we are completing these clay frames that you have to follow some basic rules or you will have broken frames. We have had only 3, but I did make extras.  My 4th graders tackled this lesson with stoneware clay, and finished them with oil pastels, one color of watercolor paint and I painted modge podge on them when dry.   The texture is the key part of the coloring process! I have rollers and rubber texture mats.  At least pencil think and more than 2 fingers in width.  You need some lid tracers and a pin tool. Don't try to cookie cutter it.  I strongly recommend 15 or 19 holes punched with a straw. You must have an odd number!! If they go hole craze, pop out the clay from the straw and plug the holes.  I found the directions for weaving the warp threads here on Cassie Stephen's blog.   I am also doing her plate weaving at the same time with...
28 comments
Read more