Art Smart-1st grade Part 1

This past year with Art Smart has been a very busy one! I was asked to lead the entire first grade class (close to 100 students) in all the art lessons. It only occurs once a month, and then I was able to round up other helpers to then go back to each of the 4 classes to help the kids stay on task. In addition to the first grade, I was also teaching D's kindergarten class. I will share with you all the projects and artists that we talked about in first grade. Sadly I don't have pictures for all the projects, for the whole class. I do have some of L's projects and will upload more images of them as I can find them. (You know how all the end of school stuff gets stashed in random places)


Artist: Helen Frankenthaler
 This was tons of fun and actually the last one we did this year in class. When we got home from school that day, D really wanted to try it as well. And since we already had paints and paper out for my little Indiana Summer magazine craft, we went ahead and did this one again!

Supplies needed: thick paper, primary color paints (red, yellow, and blue), brushes, and plastic wrap
Have the children paint the primary colors in splotches all over the paper, they can wet the paper with plain water first to help spread the paint. (I found it also helps to slightly water down the paint as well). Show the kids that if 2 of the colors mix, it creates one of the secondary colors (purple, orange and green). When they are happy with the amount of paint on their papers, crinkle up a piece of plastic wrap and lay on top of the painting, and then let dry totally with it on there. Ours took 2 days to dry. Once you pull the plastic off, you will notice a really neat texture!

Artist Wassily Kandinsky
For this project I had the teachers push 2 tables together in each class, and then laid out a long sheet of white paper. This was a new project that I had added to the list this year, so I was nervous that it wouldn't work. It turned out fantastic, and each classroom's painting turned out completely different!

Supplies needed: long sheets of white paper, brushes, different paint colors (we mixed our own to make different shades), cups or bowls for the paint.
We started out by having each child stand around the tables, and each child had their own color of paint in a cup, and a brush that followed the child around the table. Each kid painted 1 circle anywhere in front of them. It could have been whatever size that they liked. We then told them next, each kid took 1 step to the right, and added a circle to the one that was already painted. We kept going like that until we either ran out of room, or all the kids made it all the way around the table. These made fun and colorful murals to hang up just in time for our art fair!

Artist: Cave Paintings
These were tons of fun and all the kids had a blast doing this one!
Supplies needed: brown paper grocery bags (our local store let us take whatever we needed but we did ask first), oil pastels, scissors, white thick paper, spray bottles, and watered down washable paint (we used re, orange or yellow as those would have been easy to make back then)

I went ahead and cut the paper bags into rectangles ahead of class time. We only had an hour, if you have more time, you can let the kids cut them or have them tear them into an animal hide shape. Using the oil pastels, the kids drew primitive animal shapes, fire, and people shapes on the bag, just like the cave people did.

Then as an added fun cave painting drawing, we left our artist mark. The cave people would put their paint in their mouth, and spit it at their hand on the cave wall, leaving behind a hand outline. Well, instead of spitting the paint, we put watered down washable paints in inexpensive spray bottles. Each kid wrote their name on the back of a thick piece of white paper. Next they put them inside a large box, and put their hands down on top of the paper. I then sprayed the paint over their hands, and when they lifted it up, we had their mark!

Artist: Georgia O'Keffe
This was super simple but fun!
Supplies needed: white drawing paper, pencil, crayons

The kids started by drawing a small basic flower shape in the center of the paper. They then drew the same lines just a 1/2" around the first drawing. Continue this until the entire paper is filled. We then let the kids fill in the picture with crayons, markers, or you could have them paint them!

Artist: Grandma Moses
This worked out great right before Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Supplies needed: white drawing paper, pencil, crayons, construction paper frame
Grandma Moses was known for drawing family get togethers, and normal everyday life on the farm. Have the kids think of a family get together or function. Most kids in our class picked a holiday. Have them draw their family with added details around the room. Color them in!