2nd grade Fall Owl Collage

 

🦉 Fall Owl Art Project – Exploring Warm Colors & Texture! 🍁

This week in the art room, our young artists created adorable fall owls perched on colorful autumn branches, inspired by an Instagram post by @sv.artroom. This project allowed students to experiment with paint, learn art vocabulary, and practice cutting and assembling shapes.

---

Materials

Jack Richeson paint, My favorite paintbrushes, fave pencils, oil pastels, 90lb paper, scissors, and glue

Day 1: Warm Colors + Painting the Background

We began by talking about warm colors—red, orange, and yellow—and how they remind us of fall leaves and cozy autumn weather. Students used paint to create a tree trunk with branches and added dabs of warm color to represent leaves in the background.

We also discussed texture and how artists can make surfaces look rough, smooth, fuzzy, or patterned. Students painted a separate sheet of brown paper with layered brushstrokes to create a feathery texture for the owl’s body. This was a great way to explore how paint can be used to make patterns and movement.

---

Day 2: Building the Owl

On the second day, students transformed their painted papers into an owl. They cut out the body from their textured brown paper and glued it onto the background. Then we created the owl’s:

• Big round eyes (because owls are excellent nighttime observers!)

• Tiny orange beak

• Triangle-shaped feet

Students practiced cutting circles, triangles, and curves—wonderful fine motor skills disguised as creative fun. They used shape tracers from amazon and I made owl tracers for them. 

---

What We Learned

✅ Warm vs. cool colors
✅ How to create texture with paint
✅ Cutting & gluing skills
✅ Following multi-step directions
✅ That art can be built in layers—just like real artists do!

---

The Finished Result

Each owl turned out full of personality—some are curious, some are silly, and some look very wise. No two owls are the same, and that’s what makes art amazing!

🦉🍂 We are so proud of our young artists and their colorful fall owls. Stay tuned for more creative adventures in the art room!

1st Grade Fall Art- featuring the Leaf Thief!

🍂 Leaf Thief Inspired Squirrel Collages — 1st Grade Art!

This week in 1st grade, we read the adorable fall story The Leaf Thief by Alice Hemming, 

where a curious squirrel tries to figure out who’s “stealing” the leaves from the trees. The students loved the humor in the story and had so much fun spotting clues along with the squirrel!

After reading, we created our own squirrel collage artwork inspired by the book.

Students used several art techniques:

1. Drawing & Painting:
   They drew a squirrel, then used tempera paint to give it texture and life.

2. Cut Paper Collage:
   Students cut out leaves and grass and arranged them around the squirrel to show motion — just like leaves falling in the story.

3. Details & Expression:
   We added leaf veins with oil pastels and outlined the squirrel to make it stand out against the background.

We also discussed warm colors (reds, oranges, yellows) and how these show up in fall leaves. Students noticed how overlapping shapes creates a feeling of depth — like the squirrel is hiding in a pile of leaves!

Each artwork turned out full of personality and fall energy. 🍁
Our little artists are now officially leaf detectives, just like the squirrel!

Romero Britto Inspired Pumpkins 4th Grade

 

🎨 Romero Britto-Inspired Pumpkins in 4th Grade!

Our 4th graders have been exploring the colorful, patterned world of pop artist Romero Britto! Britto’s artwork is full of bold outlines, bright colors, and playful patterns, and we used his fun style to inspire our own vibrant pumpkin masterpieces.

BTW, This project was inspired by art teacher, Jordan Hale. You can find examples of her awesome projects on instagram at @all_Hale_art

Day 1: Drawing and Designing

We began by drawing our pumpkins together, step-by-step. Students focused on large, rounded shapes and bold sections, just like Britto’s artwork. Once the pumpkins were drawn, we divided the background into geometric shapes to make each area unique.

Next, students used oil pastels to add bright lines, shapes, and patterns — hearts, swirls, stripes, and dots filled the spaces! Before painting, we talked about a bit of science in art:
💡 Oil and water don’t mix! Because oil repels water, the oil pastel lines resist the watercolor paint. This helps keep our patterns visible even after painting, and creates a cool, textured effect.

Day 2: Painting and Outlining

On day two, students painted their pumpkins and backgrounds using tempera cakes. They experimented with color combinations to make each section pop. Once their paintings dried, we finished by outlining everything in black liquid tempera paint to create those signature Britto-style bold lines.

Each pumpkin turned out full of energy and color — a perfect mix of art, science, and creativity! 🎃✨