Japanese Paper Doll Pictures - Grade 1

 

Lesson Background:

This week we had a whole school Japanese Fun Day and I wanted to create some craft in the lead-up (mainly so we would have something fun to practise our procedure writing with!).  I saw this activity in the fabulous Usborne paper and carboard activities book (https://www.amazon.com.au/365-Things-do-Paper-Cardboard/dp/1409524604).

Lesson Materials (per student):

Japanese-print paper cut into a long rectangle body, 2 sleeves, and spare small scraps for hair pieces (as I was working with young children I pre-cut out the sleeves and rectangle bodies -this was very quick and easy as the paper was thin so I could cut out half a class worth of sleeves at the same time in a pile.  If I had older students I would have modelled how to draw the sleeves onto the paper and had them draw and cut them out themselves)

pale coloured paper for the face (I had these cut out into smallish rectangles, big enough to draw the head and hair onto)

1 small rectangular piece of paper for the belt (in a contrasting colour to the body paper)

1 black sharpie

1 pink texta

1 gluestick

1 pair of scissors

1 lead pencil

1 half of an A4 coloured sheet to stick the doll onto

Lesson Steps:

1. Show students a sample of the finished doll and explain different options.

2.  Turn the backing paper into a portrait position. 

3.  Stick the rectangle body about 2 finger spaces from the bottom of the page, in the middle.

4.  Stick the thin rectangular belt in the middle of the body.

5. Stick the 2 sleeves onto the shoulders, ensuring the shoulders lean downwards and there is a gap between the bottom of the sleeve and the side of the body.

6.  Place the pale paper on top of the body (don't stick yet) and draw an upside-down watermelon shape coming out from either side of the doll's body, with a straight line across the top, to make a face.

7.  Draw in eyes and mouth with the black sharpie (lead pencil first to be safe, if desired).

8.  Draw in circle cheeks with the pink texta.

9.  With the pencil, draw a line coming out from each side of the face, then connect the 2 lines by drawing a curved line up and over the head, to make the hair shape.  Show students different options for hairstyles such as buns/ponytails/more masculine styles.

10. Colour the hair in with black sharpie.

Student Artworks:

Well done, 1B!

Reconciliation Day Artwork - Year 1

 

Lesson Background:

Last week was National Reconciliation Week here in Australia.  The theme this year is about taking action- stepping up and being proactive about reconciliation. My colleague came up with the idea of creating an artwork about caring for Country- protecting the environment and living in harmony with the land, which is such an important aspect of Indigenous life.

We created this artwork with the bottom half of the artwork showing us not caring for the environment and then used the art of Indigenous artist Brownyn Bancroft as inspiration for painting the top half of the artwork to show how the environment used to look and how it could look again if we "take action and care for Country".

We used acrylic paint for the artwork, litter that we went out and collected to start taking action, and then we used a chalk paint stick to write the words in.  We outlined the artwork in black permanent marker.

Rainy Day Watercolours- Grade 1

By Neve - I just love Neve's moody clouds and her colour choices for the rain!

 Lesson Background:

Our spelling word of the week was 'rain' a few weeks back. We explored the word in lots of ways-definition, etymology, long a sounds, -ain onset and rime, and we created these rainy pictures and wrote procedures about them.  Sorry for the poor photo quality... I forgot to photograph them before I hung them up!

Lesson Materials (per student):

1 sheet A 4 art paper

thin brushes

lead pencil

watercolour paint palettes

Lesson Steps:

1.  Demonstrate how to draw the cloud across the page- show different options for shapes they might like.  Children follow along, drawing the cloud the way they think looks best.

2. Show students how to draw a raindrop shape-  I always ask my students to describe the shapes and lines and many of them said it was a 'teardrop' shape. Some said it was like a ball with a triangle hat on top.  Students draw in their raindrops.

3. Model how to use watercolours to paint the cloud.  I showed the wet-on-wet technique (lightly paint with water first so the paint swirls into the water) and wet-on-dry technique where they paint straight onto the paper.  I also showed how to make the clouds look heavy with rain by using dark colours to outline and shade the base of the cloud.  Students choose their favourite way to paint the cloud.

4. Show students how to paint the raindrops and stripes across them if desired.  Students follow along.

5.  Show students how to paint sprinkling rain by adding little flecks of colour.

Student Artworks:

By Olive

By Sebastian

By Ahmed

By Margot

Kumiko and the Dragon watercolour Pictures Grade 1

 Lesson Background:

We have been reading the glorious novel "Kumiko and the Dragon" by Briony Stewart.  We have done lots of writing, art, maths and more based on dragons to celebrate and explore this fabulous book.  These are our paintings of the dragon Tomodo in the story.

Lesson Materials (per student):

1 A4 sheet of white art paper

watercolour paint

thin paintbrush and medium paintbrush

lead pencil and rubber

water pots

Lesson Steps:

1.  We did a guided drawing session, with me using one of the illustrations from the book to copy and then model to the children for them to copy as well!

2.  Once complete, we outlined our drawings in black sharpie.

3.  We then painted our pictures (this was modelled first).

4.  Once dry, we then re-outlined any "mucky" bits with the sharpie again and added a few flecks of gold acrylic paint (because... gold! yay!)

Student Artworks:

Character Strengths Mural

Lesson Background:

Our school has been using the positive education enhanced curriculum to help teach our students about character strengths.  A colleague stumbled across this beautiful poster from Big Life Journal: https://biglifejournal.com/products/confidence-lion-poster-kids-hardcopy and I thought it would make a beautiful mural.  My Year 1 class and I worked together showing character strengths of teamwork, zest, persistence and creativity to create this beautiful mural for the school!

Lesson Materials:

acrylic paint

paintbrushes

lead pencil

timber board

Lesson steps:

1.  I began by drawing the lion.

2.  The children then all came and helped paint a different part of the mane each.  After putting in a base colour we added flecks of other colours including gold (exciting!)

3.  The children painted the base colour of the lion's face and background.

4.  I added in some shadows and finer detail on the lion's face.

5.  I drew in some leaf outlines in the background using dark green paint, and the children coloured them in with different shades of green paint and then added details.

6.  The children decided they wanted to make a green border for the mural so they went rogue and added one in (haha!)

7.  Once the mural was complete, I pencilled in and then painted on the names of the 24 character strengths we have been learning about in class, using a white undercoat and then black over the top.

Watercolour Self-Portraits Grade 1

 Lesson Background:

And so we begin a new school year here in Australia, and this year I have a delightful Year 1 class.  We made these self-portraits on the first day of the year.

Lesson Materials (per student):

1 sheet A4 white art paper

watercolour palette 

1 thin and 1 thicker paintbrush

a water pot

a lead pencil

a black sharpie

Lesson steps:

1.  We began by drawing a cross shape in the middle of the page lightly with lead pencil, and then drew the oval shapes of our faces around them.

2.  I modelled how to draw different sized and shaped facial features on the board step-by-step and the children followed along on those that were closest to their own facial features.

3.  We used watercolour paint to paint the drawings.

4.  Once dry, we outlined in black sharpie.

Year 1 Artworks:

Sebastian used a very light copy of a photograph of himself and painted over the top.  
His teaching assistant then outlined his picture with a sharpie.