Starry Starry Night Pumpkin Patch

A Vincent Van Gogh  PumpkinMasterpiece 

I love Halloween & Fall! Seriously. Love it. But I do not like the creepy & bloody decor. I really get into giant piles of pumpkins, gourds, brightly colored squash - the sweeter side of Halloween, and art with kids.

This is a super fun art project for any age, we created these with 4th graders. There are a few easy steps to help keep it simple. I found an image from 

Mr. O's Art Room on Pinterest and ran with it.

You can create this in either order (background or pumpkins) and then glue pumpkins to the starry background. It helped to have different paint stations in the classroom. 

NIGHT SKY

(full sheet black)

We painted the starry starry night sky with light colors first then dark colors,  so it would show up on the black paper. 

I gave them examples so they could see the two projects before they were glued on top.

 PUMPKINS
(1/2 sheet white)

• They drew the pumpkins with pencil, then outlined with permanent black marker.                 

• Next they painted from light oranges to darker oranges for shadows to create a more 3-D effect. It's a hard concept to grasp and I think those that dared to try did awesome.

• Once the paint was dry, they cut out their pumpkins and glued it on top of their starry night.

 

I encouraged them to paint a variety of pumpkins- because there are so many shapes, sizes and colors.  

Happy Fall Y'all!

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make a super soft Polar Bear with Snowflakes {DIY chalk art} with Kindergarteners

"I just want to kiss and hug my bear!" exclaimed one of the kindergarten students. For real, me too. They look so soft and fuzzy. But they're not. If only we could snuggle up to a polar bear. I would be selfish to keep all of these adorable bears to myself. So I'm sharing...

This is a super easy art project for kids at any age to experiment with chalkboard chalk. They can create and learn soft and sharp lines with smudging and smearing. These kindergarteners (80+) had such a blast with this art project. I loved it because they ALL created amazing polar bear faces and are artists in practice! Whatever we can do to get them to think, draw, cut, and glue - super good skills for any age. 

Here's what you need:

• black construction paper (main paper)
• white chalk
• small piece of black (nose)
• pencil
• scissors
• permanent marker

hello there!

• Using the chalk, (try to use most of the paper with the face) DRAW A LINE starting near the bottom and all the way back down to create the head (we called it a full rainbow or upside down U).
• Then add the EARS on each side, same U shape.
• Next use the FLAT SIDE of the chalk to fill in the head and ears.
• Take your finger and SMEAR the chalk inside the head and around the edges to create a smooth and fuzzy surface.
• Draw little circles for snowflakes/stars and then smear a little bit to appear glowing.

• Next draw a triangle for the nose, round off the tips, cut out, and glue.

• With a permanent marker draw details for the eyes, ears, nose and mouth (a little jingle).

Adorable Fuzzy Polar Bears

Aren't they cute? I love kid art skills.

Happy Bears

REDUCE*REUSE*RECYCLE... Bottle Lids Wall Art {DIY}

So to end our EARTH MONTH celebration, one 1st-grade class helped me make this bright & colorful artwork to hang on their school wall.  And what's amazing is that they were able to help collect "trash" to create it for almost nothing! Here's a smaller lid art version for those that do not want to cover half of your wall with lids.

This big ol' pretzel jar was filled up with lids at least 2 times...

Yep, lots of lids that the kids and I repurposed. We had fun glueing (heavy duty glue from the hardware store) every lid you can think of - onto a painted, masonite board with a frame for hanging. 

This took almost no time to make and create and every child was able to participate and create a few circle designs... gotta love it.

I knew my hoarding/repurposing would come in handy!

REDUCE*REUSE*RECYCLE