3rd Grade 3D Paper Landscapes

I love it when a plan comes together. Sometimes it doesn't. That's fine, too. 

This lesson originated as an amalgamation of two projects I've taught to 3rd grade in the past. One of my goals was to create more 3D lessons this year. This was my attempt for 3rd grade. 

Essentially what I wanted to do was have a paper landscape with individual pieces created for the foreground, middle ground, and background. The landscape would depict the habitat of an animal that would also be included in the work. The landscape elements would be combined with two accordion-like edges, and a little paper frame would finish the front. It would look something like this quick demo piece I did. 

The project went great. Then I demonstrated how to put the whole thing together. That's when I got the dreaded look of confusion from most of the class. I knew the way I had it planned was going to be kind of difficult, so I had my demonstration broken down pretty well. I was using a document camera and my projector to project my demo on the big screen so everyone could see. We worked step by step. A few kids got it, but it was mass confusion for the rest. Needless to say, I changed things the next day. 

I ended up making little springs out of 1x3 strips of card stock and having students attach attach several in between layers of their landscape. I still really like how the project turned out and it was MUCH simpler to teach to my other four classes.

Click here to download my lesson plan!

 

3rd Grade Winter Cardinal Landscapes

Two posts in two days! Woohoo! It's something of a record this year. I'm back at school now and am very excited to get back to working with students. 

As art teachers, we all know that teaching is not all we do. What? You need a new set for the music program? Can I make a certificate for an award that will be given out this afternoon? Can I make sure it looks "wintery" in the halls? Yeah. Sure. I'm really not complaining about these things at all. I work with a wonderful staff that is very supportive of the arts. I always try to work in winter projects right before break to help support my music teacher who puts on a winter program as well as the PTO that organizes a weekend event right before winter break. This particular project was designed to, of course, be educational as well as set the wintery mood. 

This is the second year I've done this particular project. I took the idea of a landscape and had my students create a kind of condensed version that includes layers of branches with a cardinal (Ohio's state bird!) positioned in the foreground. My students really get into this project and it is very successful overall. 

I will admit that I'm thinking of overhauling this project for next school year. I've always admired the work of Charley Harper and I'm thinking of using his artwork as inspiration for future "wintery" projects. 

Check out the lesson plan here!

3rd Grade Winter Cardinals

If you live in Ohio or any other Northern state, winter is a pretty big deal. Some people love it and others can't stop complaining about it. I personally enjoy big snows on school nights! 


The music teacher at Thomas always puts on a winter program at the beginning of December. I'm in charge of the set and making sure there is winter themed artwork hanging in the halls around the commons. This is one of those projects this year.


I got the idea for this project from browsing pinterest.com. As per usual with blog ideas, I changed it around and added to it to make it work with my students. For this project, we talked about landscapes in art. Students learned about foreground, middleground, and background and where to find each level in a landscape. We took the idea of a landscape and condensed it for this project. Since we are in Ohio, we used the image of the cardinal, our state bird. Cardinals do not migrate. Since they are bright red, they are easy to find during the winter months. Students used step sheets and other visual images to draw a cardinal sitting on a branch. Other overlapping branches of varying thickness were added to show multiple levels of depth in the picture. The final product is a multi-media piece that includes tempera and oil pastel. These turned out very well and I've gotten a plethora of compliments from the staff here at Thomas. Feel free to download the lesson plan below!


Find my lesson plan here!

2nd Grade Scarecrows

2nd grade students at Thomas just finished a project based on the book Little Scarecrow Boy by Margaret Wise Brown. After reading the book, we discussed how farmers and farming are important in Ohio. Next, each student drew a simple farm landscape with oil pastels. Each hill in the landscape included a different pattern. The hills and sky were then painted with watercolor. Finally, each student made their own scarecrow. Many of the scarecrows had one of the six super silly faces made by the scarecrow boy in the book. Overall, this was a very successful project.


Click here for the lesson plan!

Winter Landscapes by 3rd Grade

3rd grade just finished a project in which they learned all about landscapes. We started out by stating that a landscape in art has nothing to do with planting bushes and trees around a house! We studied photographs and paintings of various landscape artists. 3rd graders learned that there are three distinct levels of distance in landscapes. Those include the foreground, middleground, and background. We then talked about the horizon line and the use of overlapping to make a landscape look like it has more depth. Students also learned about the use of size variation to help add even more depth. Finally, each student drew and painted a winter landscape that included a bear. The bears were special landscape guests this year because the artwork hung as decoration for the 2nd grade musical, A Beary Merry Holiday.

3rd Grade Winter Landscapes

3rd Grade students just finished a winter themed project.  They learned about the fold artist, Grandma Moses.  Grandma Moses is famous for her landscape paintings that told a story through images.  Every student painted a winter landscape that told a story about what they like to do outside during the winter.  The project was finished by having students write a paragraph describing their work.