Dancing Sock Monkeys

I found this image while on Pinterest one day - and was instantly "pinspired" to have my students create their own "dancing" sock monkeys.

I gave them a paper with very basic instructions, and they drew their own creative version.  

We colored ours with Crayola Construction Paper Crayons.  I just love the colors and the texture they gave these - more like a cloth sock monkey than marker or paint.

I really wanted ours to look like our inspiration, so I bought some bright copy paper and printed an argyle pattern for our background.  We will add dots to our borders next week.  The kids loved making these.  And, since I was only doing this project with second grade, I got a sub plan out of it, too!

Here are some more, after we finished decorating our borders.  Love these!

Kinder Owls

I have to say a special thank you to Deep Space Sparkle for the inspiration for these Kindergarten owls.  So cute!  I loved them all. 

Valentine's Day

Just a few Valentine's things.  I got the popsicle tray idea from another blog Painted Paper - you should definitely check it out.  One of my Kinder classes made these.

These were more of my fantastic, free Styrofoam "canvasses".  They were too small for our Klimt tree project, so I let a class of 1st graders paint a Valentine-themed design on them for fun.  

More 1st Grade Flowers

Here are a few more of our O'Keffe inspired flowers.  These are on flat, 9x9 inch paper.  Drawn in pencil, traced in sharpie, painted with tempera cake paints.  

Klimt Trees

I have a WONDERFUL parent who sends me all kinds of trash from where she works.  She started sending me these cool, styrofoam packing pieces a while ago.  I thought I was going to have to order acrylic paint to work on them, but one day I tried my normal, CHEAP, tempera and it worked great!  Then I just had to collect enough of them for a whole grade level to use and decide what project to do.

I have always been a HUGE fan of Gustav Klimt.  I thought some swirly trees would be really dynamic.  So, we started by looking at his art and the work of contemporary artists who are obviously inspired by him.

I gave them three COOL COLOR options, and had them paint the background one solid color.  Okay, this year we actually ended up with pink b/c I accidentally ordered magenta, not purple paint.  But they still look nice.

Then I gave them red, orange, yellow, and pink paint (warm colors) to add background swirls and designs.

 Finally, we used black paint to make our swirly trees - black so it would give us more CONTRAST.  I know, there's no gold, and that is the quintessential Klimt detail.  BUT...did you know the Tree of Life was a MOSAIC and Klimt used opals and other semi-precious gemstones as part of his design?  So, instead of gemstones we used sequins and tacky glue.  So fun!

Symbols of the United States (aka, MORE patriotic art!)

Here are the final examples of patriotic art.  We learned about some different symbols of the United States, then we created projects using some of those.

Collaged eagles with creative, red, white, and blue backgrounds.

Statue of liberty drawings glued to either a red, white and blue background OR a fireworks background. 

Fantastic Freebies

Check out our awesome (and well-used) aprons we got for FREE from Cracker Barrel.  Apparently, when a server gets another star, instead of adding a star to their existing apron they get brand new ones.  I knew two people who were working there, and they collected old aprons for me.  I had two whole class sets by the end of the year (I work at two schools).  We had to cover up the logo (iron-on photo paper) but they have lasted years.  I take them home a few times a year and wash them.