My second graders learned about warm and cool color schemes
by painting leaves in watercolor.
First students bought in leaves that they found outside and
we learned how to identify them using “Talking Leaves- How to Identify American
Leaves”.
We discussed what it means to be a confident artist as we
traced both real leaves (and leaf stencils that I made from real leaves) in an
ultra fine point sharpie. No pencils were used in the making of this project.
Students drew their leaves to look like they overlapped and
went off the page.
I taught my students about watercolor and the importance of
letting the water do the work.
To get the great tie dye effect students first paint a leaf
with clean water and then dot in
the warm colors with their brush. They are always so surprised by the way the
color moves. We later do the same thing for the background, only in cool
colors, and then we add an extra fun texture using course salt.
My favorite part of this project is how excited my students
are about what they have made.
It is easy for everyone to be successful.
