Coco with Santa Christmas Projects

Every year our school has a big evening event where students and parents can come shop at the book fair and take pictures with Santa.  PTA always asks for some festive art to hang on the walls around the school to help set the mood.  The following projects are what we did for this years event.  

1st Grade Abstract Christmas Trees

The first grade classes created truly unique Christmas trees using pattern repetition within each section of their trees. students were able to create their own tree designs but had to be sure not to have two sections the same.  Students were asked to focus on variety and pattern as they used line to create this project.  Students then painted their trees using a variety of colors to symbolize a decorated Christmas tree. The Medium used for this project was pencil, permanent marker, watercolor and tempera paints.

Second Grade

Ornament Design  

The second grade classes created truly unique ornaments using a circle tracer and then creating patterned repetition in line design format.  Students were asked to focus on variety and pattern as they used line to create this project. The Medium used for this project was pencil, permanent marker, and watercolor paints. 

Fifth Grade

Glowing Lights

The fifth grade classes created realistic looking strings of lights.  Students started this project by gluing a 30 inch thread to the paper and then practiced using oil pastels and blending them to create the appearance of glowing lights.  Students focused on continuity and harmony so that the lights were unified in size and balanced on their paper to give the appearance of realistic lights.  Students finished this project by adding white accents using the oil pastels and mimicking light reflection that naturally occurs in shinny objects like glass.

4th grade Christmas Houses

To help start this lesson we discussed about geometric shapes and how they are often used in man made things such as buildings.  Students focused on architecture and how all buildings start as a basic concept on paper.  Students looked at an example of Victorian architecture from Edward Hopper "House by the Railroad, 1925" before creating their own sketches.  Students then used rulers to create their own unique home design complete with Christmas decorations.  Students used permanent marker and water color paint to complete this very cute project.

4th Grades African Safari Drawings

The students in fourth grade learned about the amazing wild animals that live on the continent of Africa.  We studied pictures and video clips of these amazing animals in their natural habitats.  The students then drew the animal of their choosing using a sketch technique  of short, line lines.  Students also included aspects of the animal's natural habitat.  They finished their pictures by adding color using colored pencils.  These pictures are to represent the photos one might take on a real African safari trip.  To help showcase their drawings the students also learned about the Ndebele people of South Africa and Zimbabwe.  This group of people live in a beautiful yet harsh environment.  A big part of Ndebele’s culture involves the decorating or enhancing of the world around them by painting colorful geometric based designs on things such as their homes and clothing.  To create their Ndebele inspired picture frames, students used the medium of pencil and pastel.