Friday, November 18, 2016

Mystery Drawings: Slice of Pie (Gobble it up!)




In these last few days before Thanksgiving Break, many of my classes have been challenged with a Mystery Drawing, something that has become a fast favorite around here! A Mystery Drawing is basically a step-by-step drawing lesson, but the excitement comes in when kids must watch for and listen to clues in order to complete the drawing successfully, because they don't know what the drawing will turn out to be! The drawings are designed to be completed within a 45 minute session, including pencil drawing, personalizing, tracing, and coloring.
When I announced that we would be doing a Mystery Drawing, I was surprised by cheers - I was so happy they remembered from the previous year how this whole thing works - and they loved it! We began with a refresher on vertical/horizontal, and the clues kept on coming. You could hear a pin drop - so much focus! I ask for guesses as we build our drawings, shape by shape. A hat? A couch? A mailbox? A slice of pie... ding ding ding! Our Wayne Thiebaud-inspired pie drawing comes just in time for Thanksgiving, along with a message for our families and a conversation about some of our family traditions. Once the mystery is solved, students are encouraged to include details from their own holiday table. They were very proud to take these home and display in their own kitchens for Thanksgiving week.
My Mystery Drawing set is available on Teachers Pay Teachers if you'd like to try it out - there's even a sale going on Nov.19-22. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!


















50 products, 500 followers = big TPT sale!

I noticed today that my Teachers Pay Teachers following had increased to 500, and I have 50 products listed - which seems like a good enough reason to celebrate with a sale! I am offering a storewide sale on all of my products from Nov.19-22 - everything will be 20% off! Please stop by and check out my art room resources, elementary writing and character ed activities.
Thank you so, so much to all the teachers who have followed my store progress over the last few years - it has been so much fun creating products and hearing how you are using them!
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mrs-Knights-Smartest-Artists

Saturday, November 12, 2016

Watercolor still lifes in 2nd & 3rd

Here we have our lovely watercolor still life lesson in 2nd and 3rd grades - a still life is part of our "Nouns in Art" series, as it includes THINGS set up on a table. Second graders examined Matisse's famous fishbowl for inspiration, and third graders observed live plants to create their compositions. Always enjoyable and always successful for all!
Third grade pics:

    
     
     
     
   

Second grade pics: