Tons of Turkeys

With Thanksgiving right around the corner. The elementary school age teachers of America unite on the craft frontier to make, turkeys. Lots, and lots, of craft project turkeys. So here are three of the turkey projects I have been working on.  One is the turkey wreath. This is made with paper plates, construction paper and glue. I found it a little advanced for the kindergarten kids in my after school program but they could do it with some one on one assistance.

The second one that is lots of fun is the paper cup turkey, which is good for all age groups. You will need: paper bathroom cups, brown paint (tempera or acrylic),
 google eyes, construction paper, scissors, glue, cotton balls or craft pompoms and construction paper in brown and yellow. If you are doing this with a group I highly recommend precutting the construction paper pieces.

Pen and ink leaf drawings

I'm using my day off today to prep a lesson for the charter school I will be teaching at this Friday. Students will be using India Ink and a quill (feather) to draw with the ink. I use a disposable container to put the ink, since it stains. I also put down newsprint on my work surface. Students will start with pen and ink techniques making a value strip that practices the techniques going to dark.

Then using pressed natural leaves students will draw a contour outline of the leaf and use the pen and ink techniques to draw the leaf. 

Pumpkin prints

With Halloween and Thanksgiving upon us I am getting inspired by all things pumpkin!
This is a simple paint printing project using the caps of a gallon or half gallon milk jug.

You will need:
 White or other light colored paper
Orange paint or red and yellow to mix
 A  tray or other surface to put the paint on
Markers or colored pencils in green, black, orange and brown.

Step 1 Dip the cap slightly into the orange paint and print an arrangement or circles on the paper.Let the printed circles dry.

Step 3 Go into the dry circles with marker of pencils and either draw Jack o lantern faces or pumpkin ribs.

                                                                   

Step 4 If you want to make the project more elborate cut the pumpkins out and make an scene with them on another sheet of paper.

Haunted House

Twice a year I make these graham cracker houses. I make them at Halloween time with Halloween candy then again at Christmas time with holiday candy.I used chocolate grahams for the Haunted house. The graham crackers are "glued" together into a box shape with frosting.I used full sheets of crackers for this townhouse. I prefer using half sheets for Christmas so it looks more like a cottage house. Then two cracker half's are put at an angle to create the roof. Its kinda like when you build a house of cards.Broken cracker crumbs created the "grave stones" the "sidewalk" and the "dirt". I usually build the house on cardboard sheets with aluminum foil or in this case plastic wrap over them. Best to use something disposable.

Pumpkin collages

This a quick one day project you can finish it in under a half hour.Prep time goes quick with use of a paper cutter. I cut orange construction paper into strips 1 to 2 inches wide and smaller strips of green paper. Students had a choice of stacking strips horizontally or vertically and rounding off the edges to create the shape of their pumpkin. some choose to let the black background paper show through and others did not. I let the students choose if their pumpkins would have a face or not.

Ceramic jack o lantern

This is a simple fairly simple clay project that you could probably do with older elementary students say in 4th or 5th grade. I made it is part of a hand building clay class I am taking. This was made with two pinch pots one stacked on top of the other. A coil was rolled and put over the seam then smoothed out. I made the lines on the pumpkin with a oval shaped chopstick but the rounded edge of a Popsicle stick would probably do. After the bisque firing I just used a orange acrylic paint on it and let parts of the stoneware color of the clay show through on the lines and the stem.A hole was cut in the bottom and on Halloween I am going to out a battery powered tea light in it. You could also vary this to be a pumpkin and skip the Halloween holiday edge then it could be a table topper for thanksgiving or other fall occasions as well.Just be sure if making the pumpkin variation that you cut a hole in the top or bottom to let the air out before firing.

I just love fall! I get so much inspiration from this season. The sights, the sounds the colors. I love picking pumpkins and painting/ carving them. I love hayrides, long walks to see the changing leaves and warm apple cider. So I have been working on a series of different fall themed drawings with students. For my Saturday classes for 7-10 year olds we have been creating fall scenes using markers. We talked about how to get different values out of the marker color be varying the pressure you apply on the marker. We also have a small how to draw a pumpkin tutorial and a discussion on horizon line and foreground, background and middle ground. We discussed how items in the front are larger then items in the back.

I created another variation of a marker drawing. The one below was draw with water based markers then a used a brush and brushed water back into it for a more water color effect.