Pizza Anyone?

Sometimes I just get the greatest donations of supplies. Recently, yards and yards of felt appeared at my door. Then some white boxes were left over after the flowers inside were all used up. You couldn't buy a better combination to make the easiest and most fun pizza project ever.
1. Students need scissors that are sharp enough to cut through felt, but are still safe. I found some 99¢ Store ones that worked pretty well, but were not totally reliable – good art scissors might be best. Students were given a beige square that they cut into a circle, and then a smaller burgundy square they cut into the sauce. Gray, yellow and green felt squares were cut into shapes for mushrooms, cheese and green pepper. No glue is necessary, these felt shapes just like to stick together.
2. You can buy 12" white pizza boxes online, here is one example. Students may use Sharpie markers to write their pizza store name on front.
Thanks to Katharine, a 1st grader, for letting me share her yummy pizza!

Kandinsky Colorweaver

Wassily Kandinsky made a beautiful painting called "Color Studies" back in the early 1900's that is fun to imitate with oil pastels instead of watercolor.
1. Distribute 9" x 12" pieces of art paper to students. Give them rulers to measure and draw pencil lines across the middle of the paper in both directions.
2. Ask the students to start in the center and with an oil pastel, draw an angle and fill in the triangle that is created. Continue around the center with drawing triangles, only changing colors each time.
3. Once a diamond is created, add bands of color around the diamond, always changing color on the pencil lines. Continue until the paper is filled with color.
This picture was made by a kindergartener in an afterschool class.

How to Draw a Seahorse

If your students are ever learning about amazing animals, then a book from Eric Carle titled “Mr. Seahorse” is a great lead-in to this project.
1. Students draw a seahorse in pencil as shown in the diagram above.
2. They trace their drawing with a black permanent marker.
3. The seahorse is colored in with crayons, the more colors the better. White crayons may be used to add wave lines in the background.
4. Blue watercolor paint is brushed over the entire paper. I love the Turquoise Blue Liquid watercolor paint from Dick Blick, but I'm sure lots of other shades of blue will look great too.

Pom Pom Yarn Balls

I’m in love with these pom poms! Save all those scraps of yarn – you can make these large or small with tons of different colors. I always thought I needed to buy a gadget to make them, but just found out (thank you internet!) that’s not true.

1. I used a square of matte board that was about 4" wide to make about a 2" ball. Wind yarn around it as shown in diagram 1.
2. Continue winding with either the same color or other yarn until it is a fairly thick band as shown in diagram 2. Bend the matte board to slide the yarn off the board.
3. Cut a long yarn for the string, place on a table, and center the band of yarn on top as in diagram 3.
4. Tie a knot that is very tight, and knot again. Cut all the loops as shown in diagram 4.
5. Give the yarn ball a fairly generous “haircut” to shape the ball. Then, use it to decorate whatever you want – or use as a really killer cat toy!

Watercolor Collage

I love what torn edges do for a project, even though most students seem resistant to it. I think it maybe just takes time to trust that “happy accidents” sometimes happen with this process.

1. Give each student two sheets (I used 9" x 12") of watercolor paper and watercolors. One sheet is to be filled with one color, leaving a border around the edge (I used blue). The other sheet is painted with lots of large patterns and colors of paint. Let dry.
2. Have the students take their patterned painting and tear it into different size pieces of squares and rectangles and strips. Arrange them on the solid paper in a pleasing way and glue them in place with white glue.
3. Cut pieces of yarn and arrange on top of the artwork. I made a sun and rays and a few more lines. Glue in place and let dry.

Mother’s Day Collage Card

This is a simple layout, but needs to be done neatly to make it look nice. My secret is to use glue sticks to make the tissue paper lay smooth and flat.

1. Students use scissors to cut out the flower and vase shapes from blue, green, pink and yellow tissue paper.
2. Glue is spread all over the front of a folded card and the tissue pieces are attached. Don’t worry about any excess glue as it will not be sticky when dry. To make all the edges lay flat, students gently rub a bit of glue over the top of each piece.

3. Messages are added in crayon on the front and inside the card.

Metal Tooling Mother’s Day Card

Gold metal tooling is great material for making textured art. Add Sharpie markers and you have a very expensive looking Mother’s Day card.

1. Each student gets a 3" x 5" piece of gold tooling, and place it on a few layers of newspaper. They draw firmly with a dull pencil to engrave the image.

2. Sharpie markers are used to color it in.

3. The final art may be mounted on a 6" x 9" folded card using double-sided tape. I recommend a quality card stock because this card is a keeper.

Draw Klimt’s Tree of Life

Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) was an Austrian painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Art Nouveau movement. His wonderfully abstract “Tree of Life” can be fun and relatively easy to draw when you break it down into steps.
1. Draw center tree trunk.
2. Add one curvy branch to the right and one to the left.
3. Center two more curvy branches on either side. Draw the ground line behind the tree.
4. Add small curvy branches wherever space allows.
5. Add small abstract triangle leaves and mushroom shapes.
6. Add abstract designs inside the tree and on the ground. Erase the lines where the the branches are added on.
7. Trace all the lines with a permanent black marker. Color the tree and background as desired. Gold and rich colors were often featured in Klimt’s work.

Mother’s Day “Pancake Recipe”

This is a compilation of what my 1st and 2nd grade students wrote today, when I asked them how they would make pancakes, possibly for a Mother’s Day breakfast in bed.

1. Students glued a photo of pancakes to their paper (download here), and drew a fancy border around the outside.

2. The PANCAKE title was to be written in block letters. I drew a sample on the board for them to follow. The letters and border are colored in with pencil, preferably using colors already in the photo.

3. Following prompts such as “Mix _____ cups of ______. Add _________. Bake / cook for _____ minutes at __________ degrees”, students fill in their own answers. Or better yet, add some other steps. Be prepared to giggle at their responses!

Tissue Paper Flowers for Mother’s Day

Need a pretty but inexpensive project for Mother’s Day? All you need is an old baby food jar, tissue paper, white glue and a couple of green pipe cleaners.

1. Tear blue tissue paper into small little strips. Make a 50/50 mix of white glue and water, brush on the outside of a baby food jar, and apply overlapping strips of tissue paper. Continue until the jar is covered. Brush a final layer of mixture over all to smooth the surface before it dries. Let dry.

2. My inspiration for the flowers comes from “Tissue Paper Flowers” by the editors of Klutz. Proportion of the flowers to the jar is important, so I’ve made a pattern that you can download HERE. You make a small green folded “nubs” on one ends of the pipecleaners, slide on two yellow circles, and two white star flowers. Use a small amount of clay or playdough inside the jar to support the stems.