mrspicasso's art room

This topic came up on my listserve today & I posted my list of prompts, so I thought I would post them here as well. These are meant to be a jumping off point for students, to get the ideas flowing.

DRAW!
*What Frankenstein Wears For Halloween
*My Greatest Fear
*Things That Float
*Things With Wheels
*My Pets
*Things That Come From Eggs
*Alien Bugs
*At The Beach
*My Dream Car
*What I See Out My Bedroom Window
*I Am Screaming
*My Messy Bedroom
*My Favorite Foods
*An Invention Of My Own
*If I Lived In The Jungle
*If I Ran The Zoo
* When I Close My Eyes...
* A Bird's Eye View
*What My Dog Dreams
*I'm A Famous Rock Star
*A Birthday Party For Mr. Snake
* My Trip Around The World
* What Animals Do While We Sleep
* In A Mouse Hole
*If I Could Fly...
*My Monster Friend
*A Huge Cheeseburger
*A Large Pizza With The Works
*I'm Inside A Video Game
*Walking In A Garden
*The Planet Zorb
*Under The Big Top
*The Biggest Ice Cream Sundae In The World
*Things With Wings
*The Life Of A Bee
*Deep, Deep In The Ocean
*I'm Ha…

This project originally comes from Deep Space Sparkle. This is our version and my interpretation on how I taught it to my classes. These were done with 3rd grade, although they could certainly be done with any grade level, with a little adjusting (use of stencils, perhaps?)

Materials:
* white tag in 3 sizes (I set forth a requirement of a minimum of 1 pumpkin, 2 gourds, and 3 leaves) 9" X 12" for pumpkin, 9" X 6" for gourds, and 6" X 4.5" for leaves
* a variety of fall tempera paint colors (I mix and keep them in frosting cups with lids)
* chubby paint brushes
* variety of texture tools (some of the ones we use can be found here)
* tablecloths & paintshirts
* scissors
* pencils
* leaf & gourd examples or photos
* glue
* 12" X 18" black paper for backgrounds (we use Molly's Midnight Black paper)
* metallic tempera paints ( we use Sargent metallic tempera)
* smaller brushes for painting details


Encounter: (We only have 40 minute classes, so this is …

The watercolor paintings I blogged about previously turned out so graphic and bold, that I thought they would make awesome greeting cards, so I made a few sets for my principals. I figured, if they handed them out, it would be free publicity for my art department!

I found some notecards at Big Lots- 20 for $1.00!!! After printing out some of the bolder paintings on to photo paper, I cut them out and spray mounted them to the cards, wrote "Apache Kids' Art" & the kids' first names on the back, and tied them up with a cute Halloween ribbon. So simple and yet so effective.


My principal said that I made her day by giving her these. *smile*

This is a project my fifth grade students are currently finishing, but I couldn't wait to post about it! It actually began as a still life project, but soon transformed into so much more than that. I have been trying to give the students more control over their artwork- a chance to show more creativity, when possible, and this project seemed to lend itself perfectly to that.


First, I set up a table full of Halloween & fall themed items, as seen in these photos:













This haunted house was a favorite and was used over and over again.




Then, the students were instructed to choose a place around the still life and begin drawing, using pencil. They were given 12" X 18" watercolor paper and a drawing board. The only stipulation was that they had to draw items that were in front of them. They could change the scale, position, and even deconstruct the items to create their compositions.

The drawings they came up with were very interesting and creative! They found the stars on the fab…