One day project “Happy Hearts”

Kids LOVE making wings! Any time I add wings to an art project, the kids gasp in delight! I thought I would teach them a simple way to make some wings.
I think they represent freedom, creativity,
magical childhood wonder, life, and love!!

Inspire!




These are the steps for the little ones. They can trace their fingers if they want. Even when we do this together, they all turn out uniquely different!! We made three rows of feathers.









some groups made little hearts for necklaces

Pet Rock Cities!

I didn’t know exactly what to title this post. It started yesterday with my girls. They wanted to go on a “rock walk” where we walk around and collect rocks.

They filled up their buckets and had fun splashing in the puddles!

We rolled out some paper and began painting with lots of different colors… that mostly ended up getting mixed together into a dark purplish brownish hue!





After about ten minutes of painting rocks, the girls decided that painting the paper was more fun!


As they painted the paper I glued some eyes to their rocks. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had begun painting (without prompting) streets, rivers, and houses for the rocks!!



They started requesting certain specific things for their pet rocks that I helped them with….

like a heart house,

heart cookies,

and even heart balloons!!

So of course this got my wheels turning for how I could use this in the classroom! I was thinking that the kids would love to make pet rocks and design CITIES for them!

Kindergarten drew their city on large pieces of butcher paper with markers and crayons

We looked at pictures of cities first and I was happy to see buildings that were other shapes besides just giant rectangles! There were lakes, parks, schools, streets, cars, and much more. They had SO much fun!


Fifth grade is going to make a giant 3D pet rock city! They drew their “blueprints” today on blue paper. They have so many great ideas for parks, neighborhoods, banks, schools, parks, etc. They are going to bring in small boxes to build their city!! I cannot wait..they even had the idea to put holes in the back and put Christmas lights in their buildings to light them up!
First grade used texture rollers to make the sky for the fifth grader’s city backdrop. They are learning about clouds in science, and will add cotton ball clouds tomorrow!

Second grade made buildings today for the backdrop. We read books about city skylines and the 3d forms of different buildings!

These rocks are ready for their 3D city!! I will be sure to post pictures as the city progresses!!

Drawing Steps for One Point Perspective

I have had several emails about how to do the One point perspective paintings from this post, http://www.elementaryartfun.blogspot.com/search/label/One%20Point%20Perspective
so I have written the steps for this drawing.
I would suggest, the bigger paper, the better.
 Before you begin, be sure to show students many images to get them excited and print a variety of photos to inspire creativity!
1. Begin with the horizon line in the middle (please excuse my very crooked lines!!! pencil did not photograph well, so I had to redraw some lines with my computer mouse)

2. Draw a dot in the middle (vanishing point) and make an “X” from corner to corner (or close enough) passing through the dot

3.draw the sidewalks first from the vanishing point
4. Draw the trees starting on the bottom on the “X” all the way to the vanishing point, descending towards the middle. Tell them to draw organic shaped trees, not round Que-tip lollypop trees! Make sure the trees are straight and parallel to the side of the paper. Watch students for this before they spend 20 minutes drawing 8 beautiful but very leaning trees and have to erase all of them!

5. This is the lingo I use to teach the buildings, We all say, “One, straight out, two diagonal down, three, straight down to the ground, four straight down again, and five, bring it in along the side!”

6. When I show them the windows we start with the side with the door facing the street.
The lines on the tops and bottoms of the windows ABOVE the horizon line are parallel to the top part of the “X”…….below that, when you PASS the Horizon line, the lines on the tops and bottoms of the windows are parallel to the BOTTOM part of the “X” which is now the sidewalk. The top of the door is also parallel to the sidewalk.
below: RED parallel to RED and BLUE parallel to BLUE
The windows on the OTHER side of the house are normal right angle squares or rectangles.

7. Now erase the “X” and the parts of the horizon line that overlap the trees and buildings

8. finish windows and add details. Some students made it into a river instead of a road. Now that the basic foundation is drawn, the possibilities for creativity are ENDLESS!!
Cars, trucks, planes, restaurants, people, bridges, parades, parks, pedestrians, lights, etc, etc

Finished Lion Dancers

This video is amazing!!

These are the First grade finished lion dancers

I made a stamp of the chinese symbol for “wealth” used in many chinese New Year designs