Crayon Shaving Fall Trees

We are on Thanksgiving break right now and I feel like autumn is fleeting. I've always felt that the Friday after turkey day was the beginning for Christmas  and winter festivities. So here is my last post related to fall because next you will be seeing snowmen and snowflakes!

I did this project with my first graders. We first talked about which season we were in and the different attributes that went along with fall. Namely, colorful falling leaves.

I showed them how to create their trees with brown construction paper. After they were done creating the tree they brought me their picture so that I could add crayon pieces and iron the wax paper together. We had a nice orderly system going that worked really well.

After their paper was fused together, they added a black border and put a fall pattern on it with oil pastels. 

I have to say that I didn't intend for them to be sun-catchers. I was just simply holding them up to look at and realized how great and vivid  they looked with the light shining through.

I decided to display them in the windows above the front door. This is a heavily trafficked area where I knew the student's work would stand out. 

This was a great one day project that included science in the art making. The students really enjoyed it and thought it was so cool how the crayons melted. I am excited to do this project again next year.

Please take a moment to subscribe, like me on facebook, or follow along on google+

Color Wheel: Hand Line Design

Color is my favorite element of art! I was trying to think of a way to teach color theory without having to do the same old color wheel, while at the same time covering more elements and principles. I enjoy hand art and came up with this crayon resist hand line design. The students traced their hand three times with only one finger touching another finger on a second hand. Done right, you will end up with six different sections. From there we talked about line, shape, pattern, and variety/visual interest. I instructed them to fill in each section with a different pattern using lines and shapes while showing variety. They all started with pencil so that I could observe and make sure they were all on the right path. 

Next, I showed them how water resists wax and had them trace over all of their pencil lines with black crayon. Lastly, they watercolored in each area in color wheel order. Some got the concept, and others I think got distracted and got out of order. They came out really nice!