First Grade Sunflowers

Author Laurence Anholt has a series of children's books based on famous artists in history and I use many of his books from the series in my art curriculum.  For this lesson, first grade students were introduced to Vincent Van Gogh with "Van Gogh and the Sunflowers" from this series.

Van Gogh and the Sunflowers Book

At the end of the book, Vincent Van Gogh gives the main character a painting of sunflowers, one of his most famous paintings in history.

After discussing the color, shape, texture, and space elements of Van Gogh's Sunflower painting, students begin to create their own sunflowers using tempera paint and oil pastels.  Here are a few finished masterpieces!!

Venetian Canals

After my trip this summer to Venice Italy, I decided to teach 2nd grade students about the rich culture and history of this amazing and unique city.  First, we discussed the city from the photos I shared with them from the trip, especially the many canals, bridges, and Gondolas.  They were amazed that in Venice, there are no cars! You can only travel by boat or by walking.

The very famous Rialto Bridge

A Gondolier on his Gondola in a canal in Venice

A view from our Bed and Breakfast

A colorful open air market, a daily occurrence in most of Italy.

Next, I read aloud the very humorous book "Olivia Goes to Venice" by Ian Falconer.

Olivia goes to Venice

We enjoyed the story and discussed the illustrations. (a neat video that reveals the inspiration behind the book can be found here! )


Finally, we used the Google Earth App on the iPad to take a virtual field trip of Venice, which gave the students a very realistic feel for what it would be like to walk the streets of this unique city.

Then it was time to CREATE!! Students made their own version of a Venetian Canal using crayons and watercolor.

Here are a few examples of their beautiful work!

Also, did you notice the silver clips that I used to hang the artwork? My brilliant Principal came up with the idea for me to hot glue these magnetic clips to the hallway walls that tape does not stick well to.  I have been gluing them all over the building, and now it takes me no time at all to hang the students' artwork on display! This was a simple solution to a fairly annoying problem.  I no longer have to spend 10 minutes when I get to school re-taping the artwork that has fallen off the walls overnight. I am one happy teacher :)

5th Grade Sidewalk Artists

My family and I took a trip to Germany and Italy this summer and I spent the first few days of art class showing my students a slide show of our trip. One of the pictures from Florence, Italy was a street artist recreating a famous Renaissance painting with sidewalk chalk for money. After a long discussion on WHY the artist chooses to do this, one of my students said, "I wish we could do this here at school!"

What a great idea! Students first picked their own famous painting and we practiced recreating their paintings in the classroom before picking a sunny day to work outside our main entrance to school.

The students were impressed with their finished products and other grade levels are now asking to do it also. I think it was a success!  Here are some snapshots from the day.