OVERVIEW

Students use drawing skills to create a large vase and flower collage with mixed media: Oil pastels, kraft paper, cutting, and gluing. Composition is worked on as they apply the shapes they’ve drawn and cut.

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Grades K – 2

Week of September 19 – 23

1 Hour & 30 Minutes

Student Work

Lesson At A Glance

A brief overview of each step. Buttons jump to each section for detailed information.

5 Minutes – Artists’ Choice

10 Min – Draw flowers

15 Min – Draw Big Vase from PDF reference

10 Min – Music game

5 Min – Glue vase cutouts into place on large kraft paper.

20 Min –   Draw & color flowers pastels.

10 Min – Teachers cut most of flowers out.

10 Min – Fill the vase.

5 Min – Finish with pastels if desired.

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SCROLL & TEACH

LESSONPLAN

Each section is a different color. Read over once and then you can SCROLL & TEACH using any device you like. It’s designed to work best with your phone.

STEP 1. Warm Up

Students will set up their materials for painting
5 Minutes

LEARNING TARGETS

Students know how to warm up my using their imagination

M A T E R I A L S

  • 11″ x 17″ Sketch Paper
  • Markers
  • Pencils
  • Erasers
All materials are suggestions and may be modified as you see fit. We have tried many items, and these seem to allow the most versatility for the cost.

1.1 greet

Greet students as they come in and help them choose a chair.

Kneel down so that you are on their level. Bending over emphasizes the differences in your height, while kneeling makes them feel more important. Have tape and marker ready so you can stick some tape on the table by each student and write their name on it as they sit down.

1.2 choice

Encourage students to work with one piece of paper for a while. If someone uses the phrase, “free draw”, explain that artists’ choice is something only artists can do, while free-draw is something anyone can do. You want to use the phrase to elevate the students’ expectations of their work.

Everyone should take their time with the work and make a finished piece of art. Limiting the paper can also help kids focus on the work. If someone finishes in super-fast time, ask them what more they can do to the existing paper. Ask again several times – unless they appear overly frustrated; then you can allow them to move on to a new work.

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STEP 2. Practice Drawing

Students will practice drawing flowers using photo reference or real life
10 Minutes

LEARNING TARGETS

Students know how to practice drawing before they make their final artwork

M A T E R I A L S

  • Flower reference prints (below) or some real-life flowers (can be silk)
  • 11″ x 17″ Sketch Paper
  • Pencils
  • Erasers
  • Markers

2.1 Print

Reference

Cut Flowers

Cut images apart and print enough for each student to choose from several.

Hand out reference prints. Set all of the images out on a table or counter, and let groups of students come choose what they want..

PRINT

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2.2 draw

Another warm up, using the subject for today – flowers and vases.

Have the reference pages set up on cheasels or other stands, and set them out for the kids to continue with warmup. Encourage using pencils to sketch, but markers are ok too. This should be more about having fun and enjoying the subject than getting anything a certain way.

Make note about how detailed the edges of flowers seem to be, but that they can fit into circle shapes. The Big Shape of a flower is usually a circle, or a cup-like shape as in the tulips.

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STEP 3. Vase

Students will color in a vase with oil pastels
15 Minutes

LEARNING TARGETS

Students know how to use oil pastels

M A T E R I A L S

  • Vase Reference on Stands
  • Pencils
  • Erasers
  • 8.5 x 11″ copy paper
  • oil pastels (no black)
  • Blender sticks (stumps)

3.1 Print

Reference

Vase & Air Shapes

A helpful reference that visually reminds students about “air shapes” in the handles of a vase.

Set out reference prints.

Place prints on stands so every student can view one.

PRINT

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3.2 color

Have students draw a vase in pencil, and then color with oil pastels.

Read the teacher talk, and encourage your students to change their lines at least once to make the drawing more accurate. Help them choose colors that will blend together well, which usually means alike, or analogous colors. Kids tend to not like grays and browns, which are created when a cool color and a warm color mix together.

These will be used later in the lesson, so double-check that their name is ON THE BACK of the vase, not in a corner, since we’ll be cutting these out.

If you have a helper, they should begin cutting the vases as soon as the students have begun finishing them.

“Remember how we’ve learned to look at and draw the air shapes? What air shapes do you see in and around this vase? That’s great! You can draw while looking at the shapes on both sides of the lines. Use your pencil, and erase and re-draw lines to make them look more accurate.

After you draw the vase in pencil, let’s color it. We’re only going to use 3 or 4 colors and a white, and then we’ll blend your colors together using white and blending sticks to see the pastels turn into paint. Do not use black though. We’re saving that to the very last part of this project today.”

Teacher Talk

Read verbatim or paraphrase

TIP
 The white oil pastel will blend the other colors and turn them into a more painted look. It will lighten the colors up a bit, but still is very colorful. Getting more than one layer of pastel on the paper is the goal. You can use blender sticks too.

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STEP 4. Fishy Fish Shapes

Students will play a fun drawing game
10 Minutes

LEARNING TARGETS

Students know how to draw big shapes

M A T E R I A L S

  • Butcher Paper
  • Markers
  • Fish shapes slideshow
  • Gentle Music

4.1 setup

This is a fun drawing game that encourages thinking about colors, analogous colors, and shapes. It’s also a great break and a lot of fun!

Don’t display the image yet, but begin with the introduction and first stage:

“We’re going to make a giant River Poster. But the fish in our river are made up of weird shapes. They’re kind of fishy! That makes them fishy fish-shapes. All of our fish will start out as simple shapes, with no fish parts at all. To begin, I want everyone to make really nice squares, circles, triangles, and rectangles. We’ll add to these in the next step, so don’t draw anything except the basic shapes. Just a circle or square, with nothing else. Wait until I tell you to begin.

You’ll use certain colored markers to make your shapes. Choose only 3 warm colored markers. These colors remind us of things that are warm or hot, like the orange coals in a fire, or the yellow light of the sun on the beach.

Everyone choose a spot at the table. Be nice!

The paper is the poster and we’ll make a few shapes and then everyone will move to the right a couple of times when I give the signal by stopping the music. Just make 4 shapes at each place, so you can really take your time and make careful shapes. You should make all of them small shapes, and only one bigger fish. Not too big. Just bigger, and only one of those each, for the whole time. Ok, lets begin, and remember to draw in slow motion.”

Teacher Talk

Read verbatim or paraphrase

4.2 draw

Play the music and have the kids stop and start 3 or 4 times.

After they’ve made the basic shapes, have your students trade out the 3 markers for 3 new markers that are also warm or hot colors. Then go ahead and display the first slide with the fish.

“Now we’ll work on our shapes to change them into fish, like this. Add eyes, fins, tails, and gills to them with your new colors. have some fun. Move again when the music stops.”

“Now we need to make plants, bubbles, and waves for our lake. Use the cool colors for that. As you work, you’ll see how making all the fish the only thing that is in warm colors, makes them stand out and look different.” We’ll just go a couple of more turns, and remember to draw in slow motion!”

Teacher Talk

Read verbatim or paraphrase

4.3 draw

Once the fish are all finished, pause the game again, and have your students swap out the markers for 3 cool colors
“Now we need to make plants, bubbles, and waves for our lake. Use the cool colors for that. As you work, you’ll see how making all the fish the only thing that is in warm colors, makes them stand out and look different.” We’ll just go a couple of more turns, and remember to draw in slow motion!”
Teacher Talk

Read verbatim or paraphrase

4.4 draw

Once they’ve filled it up pretty well, have everyone return the room to normal and put away the markers. You can tape the poster to the wall or save it for later and have it up when they return next time.

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STEP 5. Glue Vases

Students will glue their vases down
5 Minutes

LEARNING TARGETS

Students know how glue down an image

M A T E R I A L S

  • Large sheet of brown craft paper (16″ x 24″)
  • Vases from step 2, cut out and ready to be glued
  • Glue Sticks OR
  • White glue in a bowl with brush
  • Scrap paper to glue on

5.1 glue

Students will glue their vase cutout onto the bottom half of the kraft paper. This will begin their poster sized collage and pastel artwork of a vase full of flowers.

Make sure everyone gets a good coating of glue on the back of their vase cutouts, and that the edges are glued well. Explain how the vase will hold a bunch of flowers we’ll be making next. Place the vase so that it is completely in the bottom half but not touching the bottom edge of the kraft paper.

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STEP 6. Flowers

Students_info_here
20 Minutes

LEARNING TARGETS

Students know how to make drawings with oil pastels

M A T E R I A L S

  • 8.5″ x 11″ Copy Paper
  • Pencils
  • Erasers
  • Oil Pastels
  • Scissors
  • Flower References from Step 2

6.1 color

Everyone will make lots of colorful flowers to cut out. Later they’ll glue them in place “in” their vases on the large kraft paper.

First, have your students use their imagination to visualize the flowers in their vase art.

After they’ve imagined the size of the flowers, have students draw and color flowers like crazy. They can draw realistic flowers like in the picture references, or make up their own imagination flowers. Let them express themselves however they want, but if someone is stuck, suggest a specific flower in front of them, or suggest a favorite solid color flower, or even a striped, or polka dot flower! Have a ton of fun!

Cut their flowers out while you interact with the students, and set them in a neat pile to use later. Be careful not to get flowers mixed up with other student’s work.

“Look at the pictures of the flowers in all the vases. Now look at your vase, which is empty! We need to fill it up with flowers. So, use your imagination now, and pretend you can see an amazing bunch of artistic flowers in your vase.

We’re going to cut these flowers out, so make them pretty simple around the edges. To save time, I’m going to help cut these out while you work at making lots of flowers to fill your vase. If you make smaller flowers, you’ll have to make more of them, so you can make some big, some medium sized, and maybe a couple of smaller ones too. Remember to blend your pastels.”

Teacher Talk

Read verbatim or paraphrase

Use this button to jump down to the preparation section.

STEP 7. Cutting

Students will cut out their artwork
10 Minutes

LEARNING TARGETS

Students know how to cut out images

M A T E R I A L S

  • Colored flowers
  • Scissors

7.1 DEMO

Working with Scissors

Tap the 4 arrows icon to enlarge the video to full screen.

Review the demo video and demonstrate to your students, or you can simply display the video on a larger screen for them to watch.

7.2 cut

 Everyone works together to finish cutting out all the flowers for the next step.

The video (above), “drawing with scissors”, shows you how to turn the paper as you cut, for faster and easier cutting. Sometimes you’ll need to cut circles around flowers that have too many petals to cut out, and that actually works fine. Simple cuts look good.

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STEP 8. Glue Flowers

Students will glue down their flowers
10 Minutes

LEARNING TARGETS

Students know how to properly glue down images

M A T E R I A L S

  • Kraft paper with glued vase
  • Cutout flowers
  • Glue Sticks OR
  • White glue in bowls
  • Scrap Paper

8.1 glue

Finish the large artwork by gluing flowers onto the kraft paper to look like they’re in the vase.

Have students decide where their flowers go by placing them before gluing. Then glue the backs, getting the edges covered well, and place them again on the artwork. Press down all around to secure, and then get the next flower and continue.

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STEP 9. Add Details

Students will add details to their artwork
5 Minutes

LEARNING TARGETS

Students know how to add details to their artwork

M A T E R I A L S

  • Oil Pastels
  • Blending sticks
  • Paper towels

9.1 draw

Add some background details like stems, shadows, and patterns if there is time.

After everything else is done, students can add more details in pastels, and even add black lines using the black oil pastel to complete the work, if they want to.

Everyone should help putting pastels away and cleaning up all the papers.

Take photos of artwork!

Make sure you see the kids connect with parents and tell them about the class if you can!

TIP
Rubbing the black oil pastel lines can make them look soft and painterly.

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OBJECTIVES

  • Practice and improvement in creating composition and with using analogous colors in pastels
  • Understanding how negative shapes (air shapes) help with accuracy. Warm vs. cool colors.
  • Accomplishment in drawing an animal with shading
  • Fulfillment by choosing the animal they want to draw & paint

TROUBLESPOTS

There are many objectives that can be stated here for the purpose of stating objectives that need to be puposely objectified.

ART WORDS

Paper – That stuff you draw on.

Pencil – That thing you draw with

Paint – Messy stuff

CLASSROOM

PREP

Cut some kraft paper into sheets that are about 16″ x 24″. You can get rolls of this in the paint section of a big-box hardware store in the dropcloth area.

Get enough butcher paper ready to cover a table.

Print all of your PDFs from the lesson plan and cut the flower reference photos apart.

What your room needs

Here are your printable lists and room prep instructions.

PRINT

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CLASSROOM

MATERIALS

  • 11×17” Copy Paper
  • Markers
  • Pencils
  • Erasers
  • 8.5 x 11” copy paper
  • Oil Pastels
  • Blender sticks
  • Butcher Paper
  • Music
  • Brown Craft paper
  • Glue sticks OR
  • White glue in bowl with brush
  • Scrap paper to glue on
  • Scissors
  • Paper towels

PREVIEW

Week 9: Artists’ Choice Day

Students have a day full of fun and choosing their own subject matter. This encourages artists, who often say they don’t get to do what they want to. There are also 2 stations for learning-art activities.

Week 10: Jungle Rug

Artists enjoy drawing a still life in pencil, and then using watercolors to paint it. There is some review of shadows and highlights during the artwork time. After a break, the kids cut leaf shapes out of colored papers to make a jungle collage, and then create oil pastel art of plants from life or photo references.

Use this button to view our parent’s blog. Share the link: http://parentart.org, with your student’s parents so your they can read about the lesson each week.