Art Curriculum- Week 30- Watercolor Blue Jay- Step by Step

Week 30- Watercolor Blue Jay- Step by Step

Category: Summer

What you will need:

-big/medium/little brushes (these don't have to be specific sizes, but it was good to expose the kids to having to use different brushes to accomplish different things)
-salt
-paint palettes
-cups/bowls to hold water
-multipurpose paper

-green, red, yellow, brown, light blue (ours was called turquoise), dark blue, purple, black, paint

-hairdryer (optional to speed up the salt drying process)

Time: 1.5 hours approx. (this is a more advanced project, the kids started to get impatient towards the end so maybe plan for a break halfway through - snacks are always a safe path to go!)

Prep (was an hour because I decided to draw the bird instead of going with a coloring sheet - the reference photo is from Pinterest).

 

Project:

• 1: Background first! BIG brush. Green paint to cover the background. Drop the colors on quickly as you can without touching the bird. Sprinkle with salt. Dry with hairdryer.
• 2: Red berries/flowers. BIG brush. Use the side of the brush to mark the paper. Be sure to leave white spots as much as possible.
• 2: Green. Paint the leaves, fill in the white parts with the red.

• 4: Yellow: BIG brush. Fill in the tree. Solid yellow. (tip: always try to paint the lightest colors first!)
• 5: Brown. MEDIUM brush. Shade the bottom of the tree trunk.
• Light blue. MEDIUM brush. Use side of the brush the make the blots. Paint the tail solid light blue.

• 7: Purple. MEDIUM brush. Paint top half of the birds back and try to blend with the bottom part of the bird. Paint purple on the top of the birds head.
• 7: (continued) SMALL brush. Dark blue. Add dark blue to the light blue blotches and the top of the head. The beak is dark blue and so is the eye.
• 7: (continued) SMALL brush. Black. Detail. Black around the eye and feathering around the face. Emphasize the importance of leaving the chest and belly white along with parts of the face.

Overall: A lengthy project filled with a lot of detail. It's worth the patience because the results are lovely! But it does take more time. Suggestions include either simplifying the picture (remove extra leaves/flowers) or inserting a break time for a snack. It depends on your kid's patience and what level they are at.

(logging 2.5 hours for prep and execution)

Art Curriculum- Week 29- Blown "Glass" Sculptures

Week 29- Blown "Glass" Sculptures

Category: Summer

What you will need:

-plastic cups (we used 3 different kinds we had on hand)

-sharpies

-oven

Time: 1 hour (not including prep time)

I found this project on Aggieland Mommy.

• Turn the oven on to 350 degrees
• Color the cups with sharpies (we had a variety of cups we experimented with to get different shapes. Make sure you color thick and bold. This isn't a project for detail. Simple shapes and stripes work best.
• Place the cups on tinfoil (open mouth facing down) on a pan.
• Stick in the oven for 3-4 minutes. If you can turn on your oven light and try to watch them collapse! (just a warning, our fancy tall cups refused to melt all the way. They kept their cup shape)
• Take out of the oven and use a knife/fork to pull the cups off the tinfoil. The plastic will still be soft, but it hardens almost immediately so don't be worried about ruining your sculpture.
• After it's completely cool... enjoy!





Before melting







After melting



 

Overall: Easy and enjoyable. The kids needed some extra encouragement to keep coloring but they did really well!

(2 hours - prep included experimenting with the plastic and making examples)