More 6th Grade Landscape Paintings on Canvas

I recently posted about my 6th grade students' acrylic landscape paintings on canvas. When I made the initial post, only one of my four 6th grade classes had finished, but I was too excited about how well the students had done to wait until everyone was done to share photos on my blog. Well, I have two more classes done now, and here are some paintings from them!

Acrylic on canvas sounds like an expensive project for an elementary school art budget, but the canvases are quite inexpensive bulk from Dick Blick. They are not stretched canvases over a wooden frame; they are wrapped around cardboard. But, they are primed and ready to use, and worked well with the Blick brand student grade acrylics I bought. Even though acrylics are significantly more expensive than the tempera paints usually used in elementary classrooms, the paints stretched a long way. When used effectively, there is little waste. I'm really happy to have shared this opportunity with my public school students, and I hope many of them will enjoy their painted canvas for years to come!

Valentine's Day Art with 2nd Grade

It's Valentine's Day week at Carroll Elementary! I love holidays in elementary school; the kids get so excited. I get excited too; it's a time when I can get all my classes back on track by adding an "extra" project for classes that are ahead (i.e. haven't had as many snow days as the other classes).

This week, my 2nd grade classes that are ahead are having fun with the element of art line and watercolor resist. They drew a heart in the middle of the page, using any crayon color they liked. Then, they added more and more lines, adding some creative ideas like dotted lines and zigzag lines. Lastly, they painted the whole piece of art with watercolors.

6th Grade Oil Pastel Jungle Scenes

After my 5th grade students made Henri Rousseau-inspired jungle art, I decided to try the same lesson with 6th grade, using oil pastels! These photos are from last fall; I've been delinquent in posting on my blog this year. Unfortunately, my camera did a terrible job of picking up the color. Imagine that all the colors are vivid and beautiful, and that the black is black, not gray. These works of art were created on black fade-resistant colored paper, 9"x12".

3rd Grade Art Bulletin Board

I cannot believe it's 100th day and I'm just finally putting up a bulletin board....where does time go? Honestly, I know where my time has been consumed; in previous years, I've spent several long afternoons a week in my classroom hours past dismissal, but this year I finally had to get a 3rd job, which takes nearly every afternoon I have left. When the cost of living keeps going up, and teacher salaries stay the same, it's hard to make ends meet! So, I got another waitress job at a new restaurant in town. This Saturday, I'm working at both my restaurant jobs....breakfast and lunch at Cracker Barrel, and dinner at my new job!

This bulletin board displays one of my favorite 3rd grade projects; negative space face vases! I explained the lesson in a post a few years ago. I absolutely love watercolor resist, so there are a few close-up photos to highlight some especially nice results from the technique.