PreKinder Monoprint Flowers

The last project that PreK did for the year, was a monoprint project.

I gave each child a 12x18 piece of white paper and asked them to fold it in half.

They used squeeze bottles of paint (red, yellow, blue) and squirted paint on 1 side of the paper, near the fold. I demonstrated how to squirt a SMALL amount of paint and made a big deal about how they shouldn't use too much. After the demonstration, I only had 1 student who went overboard on the paint. Yea!!!

The refolded the paper and rubbed all over with their hands, spreading the paint out from the middle. When they opened the papers up, the "oohs", "wows", "awesomes", and "cools" were music to my ears!

We left these on the drying rack and cleaned up. End of day 1.

The next class, they came back and cut around their paint design. I gave each student a 18x24 piece of construction paper and they glued their "flower" at the top of the paper. Now on to the stem and leaves. I had pre-cut strips of green paper that only needed to be glued on to the paper. For the leaves, I made tracers (not my favorite thing in the world, but I needed to make sure that their leave were large enough for these big flowers). They traced 2 leaves, cut them out and glued them onto their flower.

I have these stored and ready to hang up in August when we go back to school.

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Kindergarten O'Keeffe Flowers

 I think this may be my favorite project so far this year- I may even take a couple and frame them for my house! They turned out absolutely beautiful- all thanks to the post that I saw on Art with Mr. E. I saw the flowers that his students had done and had to try it in my room. Success!

We started by drawing a circle in the middle of our paper and 6 lines radiating out from the center.

Then I had plates of paint for each table: 2 colors plus 2 white.

I showed them how to start in the middle of their
paper and pull the paint towards the edge. Some of them got it, others no. However, some of the ones that did not get the "center-out" idea, ended up with the most interesting flowers, so I didn't stress about it.

The hardest part for the students was not having water to rinse their brushes (I probably need to do this lesson before I get into the painting procedures that I have set up for the art room).

The next week,  they used oil pastels to redefine their lines and add details to the center of their flowers.

Thank you, Mr. E!!! I will definitely be doing this lesson again!!!

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Third Grade Sandpaper Prints

Georgia O'Keeffe was the basis for the third graders printmaking project. I started out by reading the book Through Georgia's Eyes by Rachel Rodriguez. We spent some time looking at O'Keeffe's floral paintings and talking about how they were magnified.

For the project, I have a wide variety of old calendar pages that have been laminated. I have jeweler loupes that the students can use to magnify different parts of the print- helping them focus in on aspects of the picture.


 The students practice drawing 2 different flowers in their sketchbooks first. The focus for them is:

1)  fill the entire page with the flower
2) make the flower go off of the page
3) use a variety of tints and shades to color (by using the loupe, they can really see the colors that are in the flower)

Once they have their flowers drawn in their sketchbooks, they choose the one that they like the best.

 I give them a piece of sandpaper (fine-med grain) and they replicate the flower onto the sandpaper using old crayons- I have a really big tub of old, broken crayons that I collect every year (I never throw crayons away) and these are what they use.

I demonstrate how they need to color hard enough to cover the sandpaper. When they are finished, they should not be able to see the brown sandpaper at all.

They can also use their crayons to build colors on top of each other, creating the tints and shades that

 naturally found in the flowers.

When they have colored the entire piece of sandpaper, they bring it to me.

I have an iron plugged in (I used to have an ancient dry-mount press, but when we got our new school, it did not make it into the new building- a sad day for me!), set on Polyester/Wool. I adjust it as I go along.

I iron the crayon onto a piece of white drawing paper (12 x 18) and then staple the sandpaper next to the print.

I used to iron them onto colored construction paper, but the effect was not as dramatic- now I am sticking with plain white paper!

I especially love the sunflowers! Pin It