Warm & Cool/Sun & Moon

I love the feeling that comes with a successful project. 

One that the process excites the students and the results are amazing looking!

This was one of those projects and again I have to thank Pinterest.com and all the innovative art teachers who pin their own projects and those they find all over the web. I came across this blog post pinned on Pinterest http://kidsartists.blogspot.com/2009/08/warm-sun-cool-moon.html. The project peaked my interest and I immediately thought it would be great using chalk pastels and metallic paint. I was reviewing the color wheel with 3rd graders and discussing warm and cool colors - so this was perfect. 

We spent an art class discussing profile view versus front facing view and drawing out our sun and moon.

We reviewed the color wheel and warm and cool colors. 

The next class was spent learning how to use the  soft pastels and adding warm colors on the sun side and cool on the moon side. As students finished or after class I sprayed the drawings with hair spray (be sure

to do this in a well ventilated area).  

The last class was spent adding additional interest using metallic paint - gold on the warm side and silver on the cool side.

Inspiration from Pinterest - Spider Collage

I think that one of the greatest part of being an art teacher during this point in time is the availability of collaboration with other art educators from around the world. On a daily basis I connect with a great number of very talented people using Twitter, Facebook, Art Ed 2.0, Google +, and other social networks. We bounce ideas off of each other, solve problems, share lesson ideas, collaborate on projects together and just inspire each other to be the best teachers we can be.
My new favorite place to be inspired by is Pinterest.com. If you have not looked into this site you need to now - but be warned it can be addictive! Pinterest allows you to pin things you see online onto boards that you can organize. I've developed quite a wide range of boards and I pin usually at least a little every day. It's a great way to gather and share ideas and organize them into sections.
I've pinned so many great art project ideas already this school year. I've just completed a couple projects with my student inspired by ones I've seen on Pinterest.

Spider Collage
I usually do an Eric Carle lesson with my first graders. In the past this has been a caterpillar collage inspired by the Hungry Caterpillar. This year I saw some great spider collages using painted papers on Pinterest. I incorporated the art of Eric Carle, using different painting techniques, collage techniques, and how primary colors mix to create secondary colors.
After introducing them to Eric Carle through his books and a great movie - Picture Writer, we were ready to begin to paint our papers. The painting was done in one class period. I prepped the room with three stations since I wanted students to have three different colored papers to use on their spiders.

Here's a view of one of my art rooms before the students came into class.

At one station sponges were used by the students to create a violet paper.

A green paper was painted and the end of the paint brush was used to scratch lines into the paint.

Students used cardboard or rubber painting tools to scrap textures into the orange paint.

The next class students began to put together their spider collage.

This project combined a lot of different concepts and skills and was enjoyed by the students.