5th Grade Landscapes with Zentangle Inspired Lines

5th Grade students reviewed line quality in a work of art while creating these 

landscape paintings with Zentangle inspired lines.

Students first sketched out their landscape as we talked about using a horizon line and different levels of ground. They were then able to paint their landscapes with a creative color scheme. It was a blast seeing them get creative with the color.
I encouraged them to use different colors in each section of ground.


Once painting was dry, students reviewed line quality and watched a couple videos on zentangle drawings and then they began to fill the sections of their painting with different lines. Most of the lines were drawing using colored pencils. Some were done using black marker.

I love the variety the students ended up having in the finished works!

Directional Lines and Pumpkins

By the end of Second Grade I want my students to be able to describe and draw directional lines.  I want them to be able to tell you which way a horizontal, vertical, and diagonal or oblique lines goes. I also want them to be able to use these different lines in an artwork. 

This year we are learning and practicing this knowledge by painting pumpkins. Not just ordinary orange painted pumpkins - but pumpkins filled with lines. 
Students had fun mixing colors as they painted. They used horizontal lines in the background and vertical and diagonal lines in the pumpkin. They were able to be as creative as they wanted. Some added lots of lines and different colors while others kept is simple and limited their lines.

Here are some works in progress:

Zentangle Pumpkins

My Example

More Zentangle projects - 

4th Grade students at two of my schools are reviewing lines by doing some cool pumpkin drawings with Zentangle designs drawn in them.

They seemed to really like this project. I reminded them that it takes a while and not to rush through. 
Here's a sneak peek at some student work in progress - 

I love the way the art room is hushed when students are doing zentangles. It seems to calm them and they often loose themselves in their work. 

Finding the right music to play while they are working can be a challenge though. Does anyone have any favorite Pandora channels to play during classes for elementary students?

Animals with Zentangle Designs

My Example

One of the first things I focus on with my elementary students is to introduce or review the use of line quality in an artwork. I've done this in a variety of ways over the years with the different grade levels. One of the projects we are working on this year is animals with zentangle-like designs added to them. 

At one of my schools I decided to focus on the theme of animals in art. So this project seemed to fit right in. I focused on my 4th and 5th graders for this project.

We spent an art time drawing out an animal of their choice. My goal this year is to give students as much creative choice as possible within the confines of what I want them to learn or be able to do by the end of each project. So the choice of animal was extended to include imaginary, combined, or "creatures" of any kind they wished to create.

Once their drawing was done, I went over a few different watercolor painting techniques. We went over wet into dry, wet into wet, and adding salt to obtain different results. 

When the paintings were dry we discussed line quality and I showed some examples of zentangles. I showed the students some parts of YouTube videos by the artist Milliande that I have linked on my Art with Mrs. G website. I also showed them my finished giraffe. I had a blast making it and wanted to let them know that. 

Students are still working on their animals but here are some sneak peeks of them in progress -

Hands Up for Creativity! A handy way to review line quality

I'm about to enter the last week of the first quarter and just now getting around to blogging about one of my first projects of the year! Keeping up with 3 schools can be a bit hectic...but lots of creative fun is happening in my Art Rooms and I get at least one hug a day thanking me for it.

This year I decided to start the year by doing one line project with all my 1st graders and 2nd graders and another project with all of my 3rd - 5th graders instead of my usual different project for each grade. Of course my 3 classes of 2nd/3rd grade splits through a monkey wrench in that...so some 3rd grade students did the younger one.  My goal was to introduce, discuss, or review (depending on the level) line quality to all my students, while keeping the craziness of the first couple weeks of school to a minimum. There always seems to be schedule changes, students moving from one class to another, or waiting on numbers to settle before possibly getting another teacher, splitting a class, or even unsplitting a split class these first couple of weeks. So I thought less planning and prep would come in handy...and it did!

I called the 1st/2nd grade project "Hands Up". I got the idea from a Pinterest post and adapted it to fit what I wanted. After discussing Line as an Element of Art, students traced their hands and arms. We drew as many different kinds of lines as we could think of on the Smartboard (or under my document camera in one of my rooms). Students used crayons to design their hands/arms with lots of lines and colors. I insisted they use white at least once.

The next class we talked about the crayon-resist method. Students had fun painting watercolors over the crayon. When dry they carefully cut the hand and arm out.

At each of my buildings I displayed all of these creative hands together radiating out from a bright orange and yellow spot. The display was quite striking all together!

Painting Lines with Cardboard

First graders have a blast using cardboard to create lines and designs!

This project was inspired by a project I came across on my latest addiction - Pinterest. If you have yet to join Pinterest you might want to check it out. But BEWARE - it is extremely addicting.

You can find the lesson that inspired me here.

After discussing different types of lines used in art, the students were given a large 12x18 paper, trays of black tempera, and a box of various cardboard pieces.
I use flat boxes to hold the cardboard pieces in the middle of the table.

After a quick demonstration of how to dip the cardboard in the paint and "print" it on the paper the students were let free to create. I did give them some ideas and encouragement to try and come up with a design or image of something instead of just stamping everywhere on the paper.

I showed how to create curves using strips of tagboard that they could curve to get something different than a straight line.

The students had a blast creating. I did have a handful of students among my first grade classes that scraped across the paper with the cardboard or stamped so much that no lines were left showing - just black blobs, but most had very successful images.

Students found that when using the cardboard tube a bubble often formed and sometimes would pop on their paper. Of course that was fun for them and they didn't seem to mind the splat of paint it left behind. Happy mistakes!

I love the creativity of first graders! Not sure what this little guy was creating but it sure is interesting!

The next class I gave students back their papers and showed them how to use oil pastels. For many of them it was their first experience with this art medium. Their enthusiasm continued as they colored in and around their stamped black lines!

Harold and the Purple Crayon - A Kindergarten Lesson in Line

An Introduction to the Art Element of Line

This is one of my first lessons of the school year with my Kindergarten students. I always target the Element of Line first with all students so this fits very well into that. We begin with a discussion of what lines are and how to we can make a variety of them. Then I read Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson.  We go back over the book after reading letting the students pick out the different kinds of lines Harold made. Then students are given a paper that has Harold on it and they use a purple crayon to draw some of the lines that Harold drew.

Large paper for group drawing - about 5 feet long

As students work on this individual paper. I lay out a large piece of white bulletin paper onto the floor. I have students, one group at a time come over and draw on the big paper with extra large purple crayons (ones like Crayola So Big crayons).

This paper is displayed with a big version of a cut out of Harold holding a purple crayon.

This book is a fairly small book and sometimes hard to share with a large group of students. This year I created a PowerPoint to show to the students on the Smartboard or projected on a screen.

You can find this PowerPoint here on my Art with Mrs. G website. That website is currently under construction as I set it up for my different schools and move some data onto it from a MobileMe website. But the Harold ppt is there for anyone to use.