These student examples look a little more realistic than
2nd grade
1st Grade
This is the template I copied off for the 1st graders to follow
This is a very fun unit. We began with a PowerPoint on Surrealism and surrealist artists, such as Dali. I then had the students choose from some pre-cut magazine pictures (or you could have them search magazines to cut them out), and then they changed the pictures so that they had surreal qualities. I had them draw with crayon to make them no longer look normal/real. The kids became very creative and thought it was fun to take a silly look on surrealism.
This is such a fun project that the kids loved. I began by having them close their eyes and pretend they were going to bed. They had already put on their pajamas and brushed their teeth. They had just layed their heads down on their soft pillows when ...BAM! (I made some noises by pounding on a desk). I then asked them what it could be. Eventually, someone guessed it was the monster in their closet. I then had them describe to me what their monster looked like. They each then got to create their monster using oil pastels on black construction paper. The oil pastels show up much brighter on the dark paper. Then they drew their door and I then stapled the two together for them. 
We began by talking about pumpkins and discussing their traits and how there are many different looking pumpkins. We then looked at some pictures that showed a wide variety of pumpkins (shape, size, color...) The students then created their own pumpkin patches. They first drew and colored their pumpkins on a white sheet of paper, then cut them out and pasted them onto the green sheet of construction paper. They then decorated the background. This is a great lesson for teaching space, as the pumpkins can be layered to show depth.
For this project, we began by talking about faces and their features. We then transitioned into faces on jack-o-lanterns. I showed them some examples on the board of how to make one look happy, sad, scary, silly, etc... We then drew our jack-o-lanterns on 8"x8" squares of watercolor paper using orange and yellow crayons. The class then used dark watercolors (black, blue, purple) to paint over the face. They were so amazed by how the crayon created a resist. They all turned out very neat, as they showed such good contrast and made the pumpkins seem to glow.
This project is similar to what I had the first grade do, as I began with the class sharing what they were thankful for and I drew their answers on the board. I then passed out the pre-cut turkey pieces the the kids to decorate and glue. On each tail feather, they drew something that they were thankful for.
This is a great project for Thanksgiving time. Our class began by sharing things that they were thankful for and I wrote them on the board (I sketched some of them out as well, as many of these were new words). I then shared my Thankful Quilt Square with the class and explained each item I had drawn and why I was thankful for it. I then had the students each create one of their own. A fun option would be to post them all on a classroom wall (or displayed somewhere in the school) together so it looked like a large quilt. *note, if you choose to have them create a border frame, have them glue it on first before they begin drawing what they are thankful for in the center (so nothing gets covered up).
Another great holiday project. This works well with teaching small, medium, and large to early grades as they put their own snowmen together using pre-cut circles. Before we began, I had the kids all close their eyes and we pretended like we woke up to a big snowfall (they had to use their imaginations since we live in a warm climate). They shared what they would do in the snow -including making a snowman. Then we sang the snowman song and then discussed the features of snowmen and then I handed out their project supplies. I had them use white oil pastels for the snow because it shows up better on the dark paper.
This is a great holiday project. We started off by reading the classic story of The Gingerbread Man and then discussed the characteristics that gingerbread men have and then I had them design their own on 5x7 pieces of brown construction paper. I had them use oil pastels for this project because they show up very bright on the brown paper. They did the "icing" first and then added any other details that they wanted. They then glued them down to "baking sheets" -which were made with cardboard covered with aluminum foil.
This project was used as part of a color unit for my 3rd graders. They each made theirs with their choice of a complimentary color pair. They also got practice with cutting multiple pieces of paper at the same time. I got the idea for this from this book.
This project turn out really neat and the kindergartners have a lot of fun. I had them color coffee filters, then we dipped them in water. When they were dry, I cut them into fish shapes for the class while the kids decorated their fish's homes with undersea details. Incorporating the book, The Rainbow Fish, would also work great with this lesson.
These are some of the extra fish, now decorating our classroom
After a lesson on how pattern is used in art, the 1st graders each made their own pattern quilt. I had the template already made and copied for everyone, they then filled in the squares using patterns in texture and color.
This is a project that 4th grade did, inspired by one that I made when I was in elementary. We got plenty of practice tearing paper and using a smearing technique with chalk pastels.
This is one of the most interesting projects when it is complete. We started our bouquets after learning about Van Gogh and texture. We created texture on our bouquets by putting a line of glue over all the lines in our sketch. After it dried, we filled everything in with chalk pastels and then went over the glue lines with a roller of black paint. This is just one of a ton of amazing lessons in my favoite art project book. *to make things a lot easier, test to make sure your glue isn't too watery. If it is, it will dry flat.
After learning about C.M. Russell, I had my 2nd graders do this project. It was a great practice for doing watercolors washes. We did a warm color wash on watercolor paper and while it dried, we drew and cut out our southwest sillhouettes on black construction paper. I found this ideas in this book. It's a great resource.
My unfinished example
This project is great for a lesson on line and it looks great when it's complete. Simply sketch out leaves in pencil and then go over the lines in marker without coloring the outline of the leaves. Erase the pencil and you're done! Encourage students to overlap some some of the leaves and fill the whole page.
This project is going amazingly! I taught my 4th graders about Louis Comfort Tiffany and then introduced this neat project. We use overhead transparencies and sharpie markers to complete this project. I have the kids first sketch out their picture and then trace it right onto the transparency sheet. This trick is making it look like stained glass by not leaving any big blank spaces.
An idea sheet I let the kids look at and use
I did this project with my first graders. We had a lot of fun. As part of the intro to the project, we visited this site and I projected it on the SmartBoard and let the kids come up and interact with it. The kids LOVED it and now I use it as an incentive to get them to behave in class (ie: If you guys all work hard and get done on time, we can visit the cave again:) ) They also enjoyed crumpling up their pictures to give them texture and make them look old.
