Happy last-day-of-Winter Break, friends! Last month, I shared our first watercolor projects – turkeys – and my friends LOVED the chance to be artists in the classroom. It reminded me that I need to more intentionally incorporate art-moments into our curriculum. Just before Winter Break started, we met a class leadership goal and chose to do a second directed draw – snowman style!
Directed Drawings – Needed Supplies
It terms of supplies, there is a considerable initial cost to art in the classroom. If you don’t have classroom money left or personal funds to use, consider posting an arts-based project on Donors Choose! Under the influence and direction of Katie King (Queen of the First Grade Jungle) I ordered a class set of Prang Watercolors and 80 pound paper from DickBlick using a 25% off coupon. I also snagged black permanent markers
and individual water bowls
from Amazon under the direction of The Wonder Teacher.
and individual water bowls from Amazon under the direction of The Wonder Teacher.
Using Basic Shapes in a Directed Draw
First we began drawing using pencils. I drew on the WhiteBoard while my students drew at their seats. We used a “Monkey See, Monkey Do” method. In terms of directions, I used this model from Art Projects for Kids. We started the flat part of the hat. Then, we added a semi-circle for the face, a small rectangle for the scarf, and a circle for the body. Next, we added limbs. As we drew together, we talked about using the WHOLE page, and going with our gut (so we did not leave too many pencil marks). After students drew their snowman, they traced their lines with black permanent marker.
As I drew my snowman on the board, my friends followed along on their papers. We are still learning to use the whole page and enlarging our subject…Still, it is SO neat to see how unique each snowman is. 🙂
Mixing Media with Directed Drawings
We used white crayon to draw the snowflakes for our night background.
As we’ve learned to use watercolor, one of our sticking points is using a lot of water. Learning to not dig into the paints or using them like tempera has been a struggle. We chant, “Swirl, swirl, swirl in the water. Puddle in the paint.” a lot. 😉
My friends loved watching the magic of the watercolor not sticking to the white crayon. IT WAS MAGIC!
Our snowmen look great! We have them hanging up in our classroom right now, and will give them a chance to go home after break. I know my friends are looking forward to sharing their creation with their families!
Compared to our November drawings, these snowmen went so smoothly. It went incredibly well! My friends did such a wonderful job, that our next watercolor-venture is going to be independent and tied into our animal research unit. I’ll be back to share soon! 🙂
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Love these!!! It's always so much fun painting over white crayon!! And I love directed draws! It's always so neat to see all the little differences in everyone's drawings! Hope you are enjoying your last day off!
Love these! I might have to write up a DonorsChoose project to get something like this going. My school doesn't offer art class, and it just breaks my heart. I think my fourth graders would really like that!
These are wonderful!! I love how different they all turned out but still so neat!
April
Wolfelicious
I did this art project last year and I forgot how much I loved how they turned out. I think I might need to find some time to fit it into the upcoming plans . . .
Love to Learn
Our class LOVES directed drawings! I love when we add watercolor to the mix too! These look great! We did super cute reindeer last month and we got a lot of compliments on them! I think it's so much fun that that all turn out so unique, yet we're all (well most of us) doing the same thing at the same time. Keep up the great work!
Melissa
Keep Calm and Love First Grade
If you are looking for winter themed art projects that don't cost a lot, I found a bunch at this site-http://monthbymonth.scholastic.com/create.html. I especially liked the snowy day collage video at the left bottom of the page. It uses a lot of paper, but it can be recycled paper for a lot of it.
I did this today with my kindergarten class. They turned out great!
Alanna Rollins
I love all that you do!