Fantastic First Graders~ Showing Our Patriotic Side!

First graders showed their patriotism by creating an American flag inspired collage!

Fantastic First Graders~ I Drew a Monster!

 

First graders created a story illustration based on the book "Jeremy Draws a Monster" by Peter McCarty!

A story about a bossy monster who was very rude, first graders wasted no time drawing their own silly monster.

Construction paper crayons and pastel were used on black paper, they turned out fabulous!

Very colorful, and each has their own unique personality!

Fantastic First Graders~ Claude Monet's Bridge!

 

First Graders learned about the French painter Claude Monet and his amazing garden in Giverney, France.

 {184-1926}

 They loved the Japanese style bridge that Monet built himself. It is still there today! First graders used oil pastel to draw their footbridge and then various painting tools to add the beautiful greenery and flowers that Monet took pride in caring for in his garden.

 

Sponges were used to create the clouds and foliage and fingers and q-tips were used to make the flower blossoms.

 They turned out beautiful! I think Monet would have been proud:)

Fantastic First Graders~ Mittens!

It's snowing, but the first graders have their mittens!

Students were read the story "The Mitten" by Jan Brett and then drew and cut their mitten shape.

Many kinds of color were used including tempera paint, oil pastels and even neon acrylic!

Fantastic First Graders~ Fireflies...

...or are they lightening bugs? Actually they aren't either! First graders learned that due to their "bumpy" antennae and wing shape they are part of the beetle family. But depending on where you grew up you might call them lightening bugs or fireflies! 

Did you know there are over 2000 different species? Here is a time lapsed National Geographic picture of Blue Ghost Fireflies taken in a forest in North Carolina. Spectacular!

First grade practiced drawing their heads, bodies and wings on white boards first. When ready, they chose thier background color and then used oil and chalk pastels to make the grass. 

Oil pastels were then used for the moon and insects. I love how they smudged in just the right places to create moonglow and firefly glow! 

We learned that the females hang out in the bushes and grass and the males are the "flyers" as shown by this first grader below. "The girls are lined up and waiting to find their true love", she said! 

 

These remind me of looking out my back window in late June and seeing the twinkle of the lightening bugs in my backyard. 

 Let's just look at this picture one more time!

Simply amazing!

Fantastic First Graders~ Patriotic Flags!

The American Flag! Just the sight of it makes me smile! 

First graders spent time learning about the flag and the proper ways to show respect to it.

We discussed the many types of painting tools and used many to create these beautiful flag paintings!

First we started with hands to blend the red and even some yellow for the base color.

Before it dried we used scrapers to create some texture.

Then we used sponges for the blue and brushes for the white stripes. We took care to try to make our flags as true as possible by making 13 stripes! A few ended up with some extra stripes but that's okay, it was tricky! 

The stars were the hardest! We used Q-tips to dot them in but making sure there were just 50 was difficult. Some had only 30, and a few had up to 80! Many students did end up with exactly 50! 

Love the swirly lines! 

When finished we discussed words that made us feel patriotic and learned what it meant TO BE patriotic. Using silver or gold sharpies they wrote those words in.

WE also enjoyed seeing some examples of how others show their patriotism through art! 

Fantastic First Graders~ Mondrian

 First graders absolutely loved Mondrian's style!

When grown ups can't quite understand his style, first graders can! 

Using painters tape they created some very straight lines that would have made Mondrian quite proud!

But then we decided to shake things up a bit and use more than just the primary colors that he was so fond of. Still, we only used three!

They were amazed at the outcome once they tape was gently pulled off.

Not sure if Mondrian would approve but we added a bit of sparkle by adding a few more blocks.

 

Fantastic First Graders~ Midnight Owls

First Graders studied all species of owls and used different types of media to create these beautiful midnight paintings!

 I love how they realized that if they slapped the sponges for the moon it created lovely stars in the sky! What a happy accident, because there's no way I ever would have suggested it due to the mess. It was totally worth it though:)

 They used different shades of blue pastel to created the "moon glow".

 Painting the owls was a hoot, I tell ya. They are each so unique, from big glaring eyes to surprised eyes!

And I love how varied the branches are. Some filled their paper and others were happy with one solitary branch. So beautiful!