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The #YAM and #BigArtDay art show is hanging up . The 3rd graders have been telling me this was there "most favorite art project." Who knew painting on 12 inch cardboard circles from School Specialty could be so successful?  I was inspired by a post over at Cassie Stephen's site for Dot Day  for this lesson and came up with my own twist on her successful lesson. Thanks Cassie.  My kiddo's did have an art history starter to this lesson looking at the   circle paintings by  Kandinsky  and learning his importance in Art History. Then using black oil pastels we took a line walk on the white side of the cardboard. No pencils!  The conversation started like this.... 1. Draw a straight line 2. Draw line that intersects the first line 3. Draw a curve line 4. Draw a zig zag line........and so on Then we review the primary and secondary colors. 1. Paint one shape yellow 2. Paint one shape orange etc. Any l...

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 ...

I love the freedom of this lesson. The students drew with their paint brush and alternated warm and cool colors!