2nd grade owls

And for the last of the owls, 2nd grade texture owls.
A major theme in 2nd grade is texture and understanding the difference between real and visual texture. Students drew 3 large leaves on green paper and then used warm color crayons and my homemade rubbing plates to add visual texture. Then we used our little fingers and small motor skills to tear brown paper and collage it onto our owls to create real texture. Finally I caved in and got out the large google eyes.

I have focusing on building a sense of community and teach about public art by having the kids do more collaborative art this year. So we took our leaves and owls and combined them to make a fantastic owl tree. We also talked about camouflage and why owls would blend in with their environment. We pulled in the science words predator and prey while we were at it.
(click to enlarge)
I also went the extra step to put out the labels explaining what we were working on during the project.

I'm glad I took a photo though because within 48 hours my typed up explanation has been ripped down and trampled by wet, muddy feet.
even our less, ahem...gifted...kiddos made cute owls!

Way to go 2nd grade!

3rd grade owls

What can you do in two 15 min art session with a stack of scrapbook paper scraps? Make some super cute collage owls. Of all our owl projects these were the school favorite.

5th grade owls

you know the drill, click to enlarge

Whooo loves owls? I dooooooo! We did owl projects in 5th-2nd grade and everyone whooo saw them liked them. Let's start with 5th grade.
I am working on building the 5th graders confidence in drawing and getting them to make artistic choices. This was my first, "artist's choice," drawing lesson. I choose steps of the drawing that were required and steps that were optional. This allowed each student to personalize their drawing to their own taste, interest, skill level and desired amount of work. Ohhh look at me, I differentiated.

The drawing:
I started by guiding the class through a basic owl drawing. No tracers allowed for this one. We started towards the top of the paper and made a fist. I had them place their fist on the paper and "draw" around it with their finger. Then I had them use their pencil to draw a oval- circle shape about the size of their fist. Next we drew the body of the owl using a basic oval and the idea that the body should be about two heads high. At this point the kids added a beak, ears if they wanted them, design around the eyes and on the face and some w shaped lines for feathers on the tummy. Onto the wings. Students could make the wings laying to the side of the owl, stretching out or with one wing bent to hold something. Next we drew a branch for our owl to sit on and added the feet. Students could put leaves on their branch if wanted. Then I had students add a moon (in the phase of their choice) and stars if they wanted. Finally students could have their owl hold something. Some chose a heart, others had their owls hold baby owls or teddy bears or even a mouse for dinner. Everything was inked over with waterproof felt tip pen.

The painting:
After this was all done we spent two class sessions painting our owls (one class is still not done) I showed the kids how to mix different shades of brown with their watercolors and used touches of blue and purple to create different feather textures on the wings and body. We talked about painting one section of a drawing and then moving onto another area to let the paint dry before we went back to the first section to keep paint from bleeding. We practiced keeping our paint not to thick and not too watery. Eventually we did a wet on wet wash in the back and added salt to make the star/snow effect.

The results: I would say at leat 85% of the students felt good about their drawing. That is way better than usual. I was quite pleased with their drawings and creativity. Our painting results were less successful. We did our drawing on 60lb card stock...my "good" paper alternative. I can only afford to have students do one clay project a year and one project on good watercolor paper. As this was a new lesson I didn't want to risk the 5th grade's one piece of watercolor paper on it. I wish I had. Doing detailed watercolor painting on anything but watercolor paper tends to lead to so so results. Still quite a few kids got a pretty nice end product. It would be interesting to do this lesson with tempera and small small brushes, but I just love the look of watercolors.

Owl roundup time! part duex

I Love owls and during the short, chopped up month of November we focus on owls, scarecrows, cornucopias and a turkey hear and there. This is part re-post of last years owl ideas, part new ideas from this year. ***Disclaimer*** At this point last year a whopping 2 people read my blog and I was sloppy about sighting where I found my images. If I have a project from your site and it's not linked please just let me know and I will fix it right away!!!
Great owl drawing how to. Whoooo's is it:)

I know this was posted just a few weeks ago! Yet I can't find who it belongs too. You took two photos and made a little animation. Help!!! Love the patterns and the articulation on the wings.

Worked so well with model magic...the blog had the word pink in the name?

clay owl made from two pinch pots. My middle school students are ready to do this project this year!

some commercial kids art but I think would be really fun way to review shapes and use up scrapbook paper

this is adorable and a great way to explore texture rubbings and shape with the owls...once again I have looked and looked for its owner...help me find it!


deep space sparkle. 2nd and 3rd grade LOVED this project last year and we had fantastic results.



from theshamrockstudio.blogspot.com, this is great with the books, Owl Babies (k-1st) and Owl Moon (2nd-4th)

That Artist Women, look at the amazing painted paper that makes up the feathers. The twice a week 5th grade class will do this one this year.

While we are at That Artist Women look at this amazing water color resist owl. I'm going to make this one for me!


Good for kinder or 1st. Guess whoooo? owl, maybe write some owl facts on the wings and tummy
1st or 2nd would have a lot of fun with this. paper bag puppet from Elmer's glue website using egg carton parts.


Love the little fabric fold over owls...how to turn this into something paper based...

this one has a tutorial

and more with another tutorial

Not kids art work, but I really liked the collage and painted papers using what looks like newspaper or book pages

Give a Hoot ! Thrid week of October

This week will be a bit different in the art room. Last week four classes got their choice day. This week 9 more classes will have choice time. Life skills with do projects, kinder will do projects and one second, one third, one fourth and one 5th will do projects. I feel like skipping projects for a week puts me off schedule and I get all antsy, but I have to give the choice time as soon as the kids earn it or earning it as a incentive looses its power.

Lessons this week will be:

Life skills 1: Mouse Shapes (shape collage)
Life skills 2: Paper sack pumpkins to go in our sunflower field

Kinder: Mouse Shapes (shape collage) or torn paper apple or pumpkin (tearing is an important fine motor skill for kids to learn)



2nd and 3rd: Where the Wild Things Are (read the book, create your own wild thing) Next lesson will be a collage wild thing and then the boat from the book

4th and 5th: Aboriginal dot painting and practicing our persistence drawing

That is not much in the way of lesson plan ideas so...recently I have been intrigued by owls so I offer as far as I can tell the most comprehensive collection of owl projects and inspiration on the Internet. Enjoy
A little owl how to draw

don't remember the blog...sorry

clay owl made from two pinch pots. I wish my students had the clay skills to do this, but they don't yet.

deep space sparkle

deep space sparkle

can't find the blog...sorry
painted paper (I believe)
That Artist Women

scratch board project
from Art Projects For Kids I like the white ink/marker thing and the literacy tie-in

Guess whoooo? owl, maybe write some owl facts on the wings and tummy
good ol paper bag puppet from Elmer's glue website once again using egg carton parts.

The Crafty Crow (see the little owl made out of a toilet paper tube?)

Little triangle stuffed, fold over owl
another version
this one has a tutorial

and more with another tutorial
even better tutorial

How I want to display a sample of each grade levels owl project in the hallway. I want the rest of the school to see that we are doing a owl unit. UNIT not willy nilly projects.

Not kids art work, but I really liked the collage and painted papers using what looks like newspaper or book pages

an embroidery pattern I am working on right now