Van Gogh Inspired Coiled Sunflower Pots

Love this project! Our school does not have a kiln, HOWEVER, that doesn't mean that the students don't get to experience some kind of clay!
So this year I tried to order some more Crayola Model Magic, for the younger grades.
In our Art classroom we have a "Picasso Points Chart" where they earn points for following the rules and for remembering facts about each specific project/lesson. When they reach "20" points they get to vote for a reward.. 10 minute game time, sit next to a friend, music during student time(studio time), or a clay project. If they don't vote for it, I still will try to have a least all of 2nd grade complete a project in clay or 3-D project.

So some classes did a 2-D project of Van Gogh's sunflowers in Oil Pastel.
Other classes, learned how create a coiled vessel, attach "petals" and "leaves", and then allowed them to dry.

The next class, they added tempura paint to make the coiled vessels look more like a bright sunflower.
Last step, paint on a glossy glue/modge podge/ shiny finish.

Check them out!!

Can't wait to come up with some more clay lesson ideas!

1st grade Van Gogh Starry Night Winter Scenes

This project is fabulous! I have seen many projects inspired by Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night. I did want the students to have to "re-do" a masterpiece. SOO I talked to the students about what being "inspired or influenced" by an artist means. So we based the bottom of the composition, usually the town in Van Gogh's work into a winter scene.

We used Construction paper crayons on Black paper. Can I just say how much I LOVE USING CONSTRUCTION PAPER CRAYONS AND SO DO THE STUDENTS! 

We used 11" by 17" black paper.

With pencil : Drew 3 hills.. a snowman ( on the side where the big brown "tree", "building", "vines" etc is ) 

I showed them 3 different kind of pine or evergreen trees.. They has to add 3 trees. We talked about how trees in the distance would be smaller, et. 

They then added 1-2 "oak" trees without leaves because it is winter.

We talked about how Van Gogh uses bold, brushstrokes or dashes. They filled each object with dashes to add texture and Van Goghs style.

Once the Land portion was completed.. 

We added the sky. A crescent moon, 6 or more stars. They added "halos" of dashes and they added wind, swirls, or tails with orange, yellow, and white.

Last but not least they used purples, greens, and blues to complete the sky.

Check them out:

Love the trees!

1st grade-look at those detailed dashes in the sky

Love that snowman

Fabulous!