Hidden Safari

Description: This project had a few different parts to it. The first part talked about safaris and the animals you would see on one. We said that you would see elephants, giraffes, lions, rhinos, and many more. Then we talked about warm and cool colors. Warm colors are colors that remind you of something hot. Warm colors are red, orange, and yellow. Cool colors are colors that remind you of something cold. Cool colors are green, blue, and purple. To create our project, we started out making our red glasses. These glasses help us cancel out any warm colors when we look at our final project. Then we practiced drawing images upside down. Drawing upside down helps you focus on the spaces rather than the object you are trying to draw. This is a great tool for students who are learning how to draw. Then we each picked a safari animal to draw for our project. I chose an elephant. I drew my elephant upside down with a blue colored pencil. After my elephant was complete, I took my warm colored crayons and made patterns to cover up my elephant. In the first picture, you can see my patterns. In the second picture, you can see my elephant because of the red glasses. The red glasses cancel out any warm colors that are covering my elephant. Then I put my drawing onto some colored paper for a background and added my hints. 

Photos:

Extension Activity: An extension activity I could do with this would be to have students do research on South Dakota animals, such as pheasants, deer, mountain lions, bears, etc. After students find a South Dakota animal, they will do this activity. Once they have done research and drawn their animal, students will write a report. This report will allow students to give additional information about the animal before they get to see the drawing. 

Vincent Van Gogh Inspired Landscape

Description: This project started off with talking about Vincent Van Gogh and his project Starry Night. After learning about Vincent Van Gogh and his works of art, we moved on to creating a project inspired by Starry Night. This project was started off by using tissue paper and gel medium to create the background. I chose to use the colors red, pink, orange, and yellow to create the illusion of a desert sunset. After the background was complete, I added white oil pastel swirls and lines. These different lines create the look of movement from the wind. Finally, I moved onto the landscape. Since this is a desert, I wanted mountains and cactuses. I found inspiration online and created my landscape. I also added the sun in the sky. After cutting out my landscape, I used oil pastels to create texture on the mountains and cactuses. 

Photo:

Extension Activity: An extension activity I could do with this would be to have students do research on South Dakota landscapes. After doing research, students would make a landscape project inspired by one of the many beautiful landscapes in South Dakota. This can also be tied in with social studies. 

Dot Day

Description: This project was introduced by a book reading called The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. This book was a great what to introucde simple art to young students. This also adds in English Language Arts to this art lesson. My dot was created with a coffee filter and different types of mediums such as crayons, water color paint, paint crayons, and oil pastells. I put the word "teach" in the center using a white crayon to simbolise my major. I then used different shades of green to create a disign all around the coffee filter. After I completed my design I used green water colors and painted the whole coffee fliter. Once it was dry I was left with a very green art projecct!

Photo:

Extension Activity: If I were to do another activity with this it would be to have students go around the room with a white crayon and write one nice thing on four classmates coffee filter. This allows students to think about others and share the good things about their classmates. The cool thing about this activity is that no one will know what is written on their project until it is dry!