2nd Grade Asian Dragons

 My 2nd graders learned about Asian dragons during our East Asian study this fall. I used the same PowerPoint with 2nd grade and the 4th grade dragon lessons. 

 Dragons

Dragons are a great way to show the students how the "same thing" can be very different in another part of the world. After the PowerPoint presentation, I showed a video of a Chinese street vendor making a sugar painting of a dragon. Today I found a shorter version of the same vide. Seeing how this man draws a dragon in about 2 minutes using flowing lines was really helpful.

The students could draw any style of Asian dragon they wanted to. We reviewed the number of claws- Japanese dragons have 3 claws, Korean have 4, and Chinese have 5- and the students decided where their dragon should be from. The dragons could be any color or pose, as long as they were Asian style instead of European.

I originally planned to have the students draw their dragons on the black construction paper, outline with color sticks so it would be easier to see, then paint parts with tempera paint. I only did this on one day because the students were having a really hard time controlling the paint. The classes that started with tempera ended up needing an extra day while the others were done in 2. In the other classes, the students used construction paper crayons and/or color sticks to complete their dragons and then if there was time, I let them add touches of metallic gold paint. Dragons are magical, after all. The metallic paint was a HUGE hit and it cost me less than a dollar to let all 130-ish 2nd graders embellish their artwork. I just picked up a small bottle of acrylic craft paint at WalMart and even have some leftover.

I don't have photos yet of the top dragons since I was in a hurry to get them to the Cultural Heritage Week art show and following display at our district office. I'll try to add photos of my artwork "winners" when I get them back in January.

Students checking out dragons at the Cultural Heritage Week Art Show.

1st-3rd Grade Fish

Here are some of the 1st-3rd grade results from the State Fish Art contest. When I started this lesson with my 4th-6th grade students, I thought they had to use a Channel Catfish since it is the (unofficial) state fish of Kansas. I found out I was just confused from it being my first year trying the program so the younger students had more choices. I chose fish I thought they would be familiar with in addition to catfish- Bluegill and Largemouth Bass. The primary students used a combination of colored pencils and  Crayola Color Sticks. This was awesome in comparison to last year where I spent most of my time sharpening colored pencils or unclogging pencil sharpeners. When color sticks were used most of the time, no sharpening was required! You'll also see below that some of the students created interesting textures in the water by rubbing color sticks on their side.

You can read more about this lesson here: http://artteacheradventures.blogspot.com/2012/06/art-of-conservation-ducks-and-fish.html  and more about the State Fish Art Contest here: http://www.wildlifeforever.org/contest

3rd Grade Sunflower Mandalas

Kansas Day is a big deal in our elementary schools. (I assume that other states also make a big deal out of their birthdays if they fall in the school year...) Each grade K-3 worked on a Kansas inspired Art lesson during January. My 3rd graders made sunflower mandalas in 3 class periods. 

Day 1: Quick introduction to mandalas- I showed some of the mandalas I collected on my Pinterest board and the students tried to figure out what they all had in common. After they figured out that they were all based on circles, I covered some history, symbolism, and introduced radial symmetry. I told the students about the little Mandala class I took last November through Willowing and showed some of my work from it. Then I demonstrated and the students spent the rest of the first class drawing their mandalas. I created 4 simple templates (and printed on copy paper) for the students to choose from as a starting point. They learned to alter and personalize their mandalas using a ruler and a drawing compass. Getting the hang of the compass was tricky for some students, but they practiced on the back of their paper first and all got at least a little success with it. At this point, the students didn't know the mandalas would be part of a sunflower. I didn't want them to get confused and start drawing a flower.

One of my mandalas

 Day 2: I projected a really close up image of a sunflower head. The students could see the pattern created by the distribution of the seeds and compared it to patterns and symmetry found in mandalas. We also went over some sunflower facts- how tall they can grown, they can be annuals or perennials, they follow the sun, anatomy, etc. Then we reviewed warm and cool colors and the students used warm and neutral colored pencils to color their mandalas. When they were finished, the mandalas were cut out and glued onto heavier paper.


Day 3: After gluing the mandalas to the new piece of paper, the students drew petals and other necessary parts of a sunflower. Some added leaves, some didn't have room and that's OK. My Monday classes only had 2 days to work instead of 3 so they drew the petals onto the copy paper to save time. If you could print the template on card stock, the cutting and gluing would be unnecessary. They finished coloring with colored pencils and color sticks. The last 10 minutes of the last class were reserved for writing about their artwork. I tried an Artist Statement form thinking it might help, but I'm not convinced it did. They thought it was more of a fill in the blank thing than a write complete sentences thing.

 I wasn't sure how this would work out- teaching 3rd graders to use a compass. They did really, really well with the tool. Once they got used to it, the only thing that was confusing was choosing natural points on the mandala, like at the intersection of lines or shapes, to add their lines and shapes instead of having them float around randomly. Some started off thinking it was too hard but were really proud when they finished. I don't know if this lesson could go any younger, but I think even older students would enjoy it. The Fibonacci sequence could be used for a math connection.

This student turned the circles into bees.