Kindergarten Koi Fish Ponds

This was an adorable lesson to work on with Kindergarten.The kids learned that koi fish originate from Japan and can be a symbol for good luck and friendship.
On day one, students drew concentric circles to simulate a ripple using white oil pastel onto 12x12 turquoise construction paper. Then they painted the paper with blue tempera cakes and plenty of water for a resist effect.
On day two, students used black crayon on orange construction paper to draw a koi fish using simple lines and shapes. Little wiggles were added on top of the fish to create scales. The final component was a lily pad - we even looked at some of Claude Monet's water lily paintings and observed the beautiful flowers that sometimes grow on lily pads!

P.S. The inspiration for this art piece came from a blog post I found via Pinterest.....however, the blog is no longer in existence.

3rd grade Monet Landscapes

These beautiful landscapes were created over a 2 week time period. I love the depth of color and texture that was created by combining tempera paint and oil pastels. My students did an awesome job!

Week 1: we began by watching Mark Venezia's, World's Most Famous Artists video and then I shared a Monet book with the kids. We talked about how light was such an integral part of Monet's work. We also discussed Monet's thick use of paint and how it forces the viewer to step away from the painting in order to get the "real picture."
I gave out tempera paints (white, blues, yellow and green) and showed the kids how to mark off the paper using three lines to create the land section. I dabbed my brush along the paper, sometimes double dipping into the paint (oh, we were breaking the rules today!). The goal was to make each section of land a different color. Then I showed how to dab in the sky, leaving white areas for clouds. The final touch was to take white paint and dab into the cloud areas of the paper. The effect is very 3-dimensional and the kids loved that part!

Could that girl and her shadow be any sweeter?

Week 2: We finished watching the rest of the video and I briefly talked to the students about adding oil pastel details to the paintings. The only requirement was to include at least one area of wildflowers. I love the variety!!