Winter Mural

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We love making a winter mural! The kids create individual homes and we combine them into towns and villages. The best part is, that we can leave the decoration up until we come back after the winter break.

Materials:

  • Blue and white butcher paper
  • Colorful construction paper
  • Scissors
  • Glue
  • Sequins (optional)
  • White and blue tempera paint

Procedure:

Prepare the landscape with butcher paper and tempera paint. Cut the white butcher paper in a wavy pattern and glue it on the bottom of the blue paper. Paint swirly patterns on the blue paper. The swirly patterns create the impression of icy gales blowing over the landscape.

Introduce the kids to making a collage. We show them how to create small houses with colorful construction paper. They decorate them with glittery sequins and markers.

The whole class helps to arrange the houses into small towns. The kids love creating a neighborhood with their friends!

Looking for more (Almost) No Prep Art? Click right here.

Sugar Skull Art Project

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This is a super simple art activity that comes out amazing every time. You can either use the sugar skulls and simply color them, or have your students come up with their own version. We usually do both. First, we have the kids color, and then they create their own sugar skull drawings. We loved to use markers, but oil pastels or crayons look great as well.

Materials

  • Sugar skull printouts
  • Colored markers or crayons
  • Colorful construction paper

We introduce our students to the Day of the Dead, and then show them examples of the whimsical and colorful skulls that brighten this Holiday. We give each student a copy of our sugar skull and bright construction paper. They simply color the patterns, cut out the skull, and glue it on colorful construction paper.

We have more great art projects on our (Almost) No Prep Art Projects page.

Community Mural

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were: any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.”

~John Donne

A community mural is a wonderful group project. This is an (Almost) No Prep Art activity because we use materials available to us and students create every aspect of it. Nothing is pre-cut or copied. We think the results are pretty awesome.

Materials:

  • Butcher paper
  • Tempera paint
  • Buttons
  • Sequins
  • Construction paper
  • Color
  • Copy paper

These are only suggestions. We use what we have in the room. Recycled materials also work really well. You can see in the picture that somehow googly eyes and puff balls got involved.  We must have put them in the wrong activity box.

Procedure:

Outline your streets and landmark with pencil. Assign different kids to paint the landscape. In the meantime the rest of the class starts to create houses, cars, and people. You can demonstrate how to do it or just see what they come up with.  The only thing that is very important is that the kids cut out their contributions completely. It sometimes takes them a while to understand that they cannot add their own background. We tell the kids to make the houses about the size of the palm of their hand but they still come out all different sizes. We arrange the artwork and the kids glue it on. Making a community mural?  We would love to feature it on the website! Have fun!

Gustav Klimt Trees

Gustave Klimt Tree of Life

Gustav Klimt was the son of a gold engraver and included gold in many of his art pieces. The bold colors and shapes lend themselves to being recreated by small hands. The Tree of Life is one of his most famous works and often replicated.

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Materials

  • Construction paper
  • Tempera paint
  • Brushes in different sizes
  • Paper plates
  • Easel or newspaper to protect the working surface

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Procedure

Introduce Klimt and his work. Google images of the tree of life can be found here. Demonstrate loading the brush with gold paint and how to create the tree shape. Let the art work dry after painting the tree. Continue painting with white, silver, orange, and black tempera paint.  The shapes really pop if they are outlined with black paint.

(Almost) No Prep Spring Flowers

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Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul.

~Luther Burbank

Materials

  • Paper
  • Pencil
  • Pastels
  • Google Images of Georgia O’Keeffe flowers


Spring flowers inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe are a great way to celebrate the season. Even very young children can feel successful with this great project. Simply show students how to make the shapes for the petals. The flowers look best when they fill the entire page. Trace your pencil marks with markers. Then Color the petals with pastels. These flowers really pop with bright colors.

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dXGuN6JDyE

 

 

St. Patrick’s Day Art Activity

St Patrick's Day Shamrock

This beautiful art activity is a great way for your students to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.  They draw a shamrock and create the lines with a ruler. Then kids simply add tangle patterns. You can create a beautiful display or send the project home for some Irish appreciation.

Supplies

  • Markers
  • Crayons
  • Ruler
  • Pencil
  • Google images of tangle patterns

Demonstrate how to draw a shamrock.  Show how to draw lines using a ruler. Share some pattern ideas with the class. We usually draw some patterns on the board.  Your students might want to draw with a pencil first and outline with a black marker later. Don’t forget to have fun!

Read Across America Chalkboard Art

Lorax Quote

This is a simple art activity for Dr. Seuss Day.  It requires (almost) no prep and comes out great. You will be surprised how creative you class is!

Materials:

  1. Chalk
  2. Black Construction Paper
  3. Dr. Seuss Books
  4. Google Images of Dr. Seuss Quotes

Procedure:

  1. Read you favorite Dr. Seuss book.
  2. Share Google Images of Dr. Seuss quotes.
  3. Write your favorite quotes on the board.
  4. Demonstrate how to use chalk.

Have fun!