African Savanna Paintings

During our study of countries in Africa, 5th grade viewed the savanna habitat and the animals that live in it. We created collages of animals and plants on a piece of painted paper. We had a few days that were missed due to snow and other things, so some classes got to cut their animals from paper. For those classes that had to finish theirs extra fast, we used Art For Kids Hub to learn to draw a lion and a giraffe to add to our paintings. Very satisfied with both ways. ^_^

Love the border on this one! This was an extension for early finishers, but I will definitely include it when we do this project again. :)

This student chose to draw in Sharpie instead. Beautiful contrast!

Paint and oil pastels. 

Chinese Dragon Collage

I love giving "easy" projects to the older grades sometimes because it really lets them be creative. Instead of learning new skills, we can really push the limits of what we already know. 4th grade create these amazing Chinese dragon collages in January. I showed them how to draw the basic heard shape (a bean) then I showed them some examples and we discussed the parts of a Chinese dragon. After that, it was up to them. They had fun and created amazing and unique dragons! Love the 3D aspects on some of these! ^_^

What has he SEEN? I love this! 

Ming Plates

I did a few Chinese art projects at my former school and one of them was Ming vases. Students used oil pastel and watercolor to recreate a Ming vase artwork. Then I saw other teachers having students replicate Ming dynasty plates on paper plates, and I was excited to try that. 

Working from real Ming dynasty-inspired bowls

3rd grade worked hard to use value on their plate while using Chinese designs such as plants and animals of the zodiac. Love how these turned out, great job 3rd grade!

Chinese Lanterns

A favorite and a classic when learning about Chinese Art; the Lantern festival. 5th grade created painted paper with China's colors for their lanterns. Then we folded and cut them into the lantern shape. Some kids knew what was coming, but most of them were audibly surprised when our papers were suddenly lanterns! Always beautiful and fun!

AND you can view the instructions here:

Clay Chinese Dragons

Both the 1st graders and I were amazed with how our clay Chinese Dragons turned out! This was their first clay project and they really nailed it!

We started by making clay "snakes". Then we added some "kinks" to the snake to form it into the dragon shape.

After that, we pressed the dragons into texture plates to add "scales". They could pinch the clay to add horns and spikes if they wanted.

Once they were dried, we painted them. Love these adorable things, we will definitely make them again some day!