New Year Art Ideas

NOTE:   This was originally published earlier, but I'm updating it 12/29/15.

Soon it will be time to head back to the classroom. I'll miss it! I'm not teaching due to health reasons, but  I always felt like, okay, Christmas is over, what now?  Here are a few lesson ideas I tried over the years you might want to try for January.  Remember, give credit where it is due. (These are my ideas. Thanks.)  Happy New Year! 

K-1st grade:  Read "What will Little Bear Wear?" short story (Page 11) from the book, Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik; pictures by Maurice Sendak copyright 1957.  Discuss story and proper attire to wear when it's cold outside. (You probably have kids that come with thin jackets, or some without.)  Using the document camera or white board, guide the students in drawing a bear.  First draw a rounded tipped triangle for the head. Next draw half-moon ears.  Draw black circles for eyes; a upside down round tip triangle for a nose, and then extend from there with one forward J and a backward J together for a mouth.  Draw two lines extending from the head to create the shoulders, down on each side for arms, and end in rounded paws.  Go back up to create inside of arms, then down for body and legs.  End in rounded feet.  Give students pencils to draw clothes on their bear, and crayons to color.  See my Completed Example below.

 

2nd-3rd grade:  Goodnight Snowman:  Show the DVD or VHS tape of The Snowman by Raymond Briggs. (I recently found this online as a beautiful movie FREE with music). Then discuss how the snowman might be dressed during the day versus for the night time.  Pass out 12 x 18 white drawing paper, and one 9 x 12 black construction paper, crayons, glue  for each student.  Have students glue the black paper on the RIGHT side of the white drawing paper. (This will represent night.)  You can use the whiteboard, but using masking tape, tape up the papers so students can see. Or, if Using the document camera, use a BLACK crayon, demonstrate on the LEFT side of the white paper, begin drawing a snowman, and behind him/her, hills or a horizon line.  Add details like a tree, sun, clouds, etc.  Add details to the snowman.   On the RIGHT black paper side, use a white crayon to draw the snowman.  Add warmer looking clothes.  Make the snowman look like he/she is sleeping; Add zzzzs in a comment cloud.  The environment and snowman should be drawn in white.  Make a moon, if you want.  See my Completed Example.  Put your example away.  Let students experiment on their own. 

 4th-5th grade:  This is a fun one-time activity. (I did this with this grade level, but even older students like it.)  The students really let this become a competition between them.  Show a slide or poster of VanGogh's Bedroom.   Share and discuss a little bit about VanGogh's life and his paintings.

*Give each table a colored copy/repo of the bedroom. (Be sure and put these in protective sleeves.)
*Hand out a prepared sheet of a description of the bedroom from Van Gogh's letter, dated October 17, 1888 (Letter #554) written to his brother, Theo. READ IT TO THE CLASS FIRST.  Here is the text:

"This time it is just simply my bedroom, only here color is to do everything and giving by it simplification (simple) a grander style to things, is to be suggestive here of rest or of sleep in general.  In a word, looking at the picture ought to rest the brain, or rather the imagination. The walls are pale violet.  The floor is red tiles.  The wood of the bed and chairs is the yellow of fresh butter, the sheets and pillows are very light-greenish citron.  The coverlet scarlet. The windows green. The toilet tablet orange, the basin blue. The doors lilac.  And that is all--there is nothing in this room with its closed shutters. The broad (wide) lines of the furniture again express inviolable (unbreakable) rest. Portraits on the wall, and a mirror and towels and some clothes. The frame--as there is no white in this picture--will be white."

*Then hand out also a prepared fill in sheet with the following:

Your Name___________________________  Grade___________

 Directions:
1)  Read the letter that describes the painting. Pay attention to the "clues".
2) Hunt for an object in the painting that starts with a letter of the alphabet.  Write the object by the letters below.  For example, beside the A, you could write, art.
3)  Write a sentence that describes how you feel about the painting at the bottom of the page.

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

Have each letter of the alphabet written on the whiteboard.  Ask each student or team to give you one object for each letter. Write their answers.  Keep track of their answers on your own sheet.  And yes, there has been something for each letter; some were a stretch, but it is always amazing to see how many students actually used the words from VanGogh's letter on their sheets.  Have fun.