Welcome to the 2017-2018 School Year!

Hi, In Touch With Art Volunteers!

We’re so thrilled to have you back, bringing great art to the students at Washington Elementary School. It’s our goal to make creating art with the students easy. On this blog, you’ll find ideas for lessons. The art room supplies closely match the supplies needed for the lessons planned. If you notice a particular supply running low, please let us know.

A couple of notes:

• Please be sure to chat with the teacher you’re working with to coordinate a day to teach art, and mark it on the calendar, pinned on the wall outside of the art room. If your plans change, please update the calendar.
• Send us photos of the art you make with students! We’d love to post the masterpieces on the “comments” below the lesson.

Most of all, we hope you have a great time teaching the budding artists at Washington Elementary. Our students make some amazing art pieces – and it’s thanks to you.

 

Tint/Shade: Ice Cream Cones

We’re easing our way into fall, and remembering the fabulous summer weather, filled with sweet summer treats, fabulous sunny skies, and beautiful sunsets.

Start your lessons off in the art room with a fun lesson in tints and shades. In this lesson, students will use one color to work from lighter variations of that color to darker variations. It’s a practice in using black and white paint to slightly change the original color that the student chose to use. 

Adding white paint to a single color creates various tints of a color while adding black makes deeper shades of a color.

The lesson: what you’ll need:

• white construction paper
• oil pastels
• tempera paint – white, black, and colors for students to shade

The lesson: what to do:

First, have students use brown oil pastels to draw a triangle at the bottom of the paper, in the middle, to make a cone for the ice cream.

Then, have student use a white oil pastel to draw an outline of four scoops of ice cream on top of the cone. Suggest using a half circle with a scalloped edge for their scoop shape, and ensure that the scoops rest on each other.

Have students select a color and use one dab of white paint to change it lighter; then in a separate area have them add two dabs of white paint to make it even lighter . In another space, add two dabs of black paint to the original color to make it darker. At this point, students should have 4 colors: the original, one darker shade of the color, and two lighter shades of the color.

Once students have mixed their paint colors, have them start with the lightest paint and paint the top scoop; then the next lightest shade on the second scoop; the original paint color should be the 3rd scoop, and the darkest shade should be the last scoop, closest to the cone.

After the scoops are painted, have students paint the background of the paper with a different color so that the ice cream cone pops!

Finally, add a cherry on top of the scoops of ice cream.

Happy creating!

A Vincent Van Gogh Study: Wheat Fields

There are dozens of fabulous Van Gogh pieces that students can look at and be inspired by to recreate their own versions. For this lesson, we’re focusing on Van Gogh’s Wheat Field, which is a great lesson on perspective.

Check the library of books in the art room to find examples of Van Gogh’s work – noting in particular the unique brush strokes that Van Gogh uses to define his paintings.

The Lesson: what you’ll need:

• white construction paper
• blue, brown, yellow, orange, black, and white oil pastels
• pencil

The lesson: what to do:

Students should draw with their pencil first.

Starting with the horizon, have the students draw a horizontal line 2/3 of the way up from the bottom of the page. Then, have them draw a moon (full moon). TO make the road, make a long “s” shape staring at the horizon and ending at the bottom of the page. Then, make a second “s” shape starting close to where the first “s” begins on the horizon, and widening as the “s” finishes at the bottom of page.

Next, using the oil pastels, color the path brown, and the space on either side of the path yellow (for the wheat field). Then, color the moon white, and the sky around the moon blue. Once the sky is sky, have students add white lines around the moon to give it the affect of glowing.

Finally, have students add small short strokes of orange in the yellow field to add the look of wheat. Students can then add birds in the sky using the black oil pastel.

Happy creating!