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33 results found in category: Science

A Color Of Our Own

Grade level: 1

This lesson is based on the illustrations in the book “A Color of His Own”, by Leo Lionni. Students each produce a cut out chameleon in Lionni’s style and two pages of painted paper. They camouflage their chameleons in the painted paper. Both can be made into a class book or a bulletin board.

 

Alaska Bear Dreams

Grade level: 1

Students learn about the habits and habitats of Alaska’s bears. After reading and sharing a children’s book on bears, students explore the topic of hibernation. They create a drawing of a hibernating bear, complete with cut paper shapes representing the bear’s dreams.

 

Alaska Landscapes with Georgia O'Keeffe

Grade level: 4

Students study the life and art of Georgia O’Keeffe, focusing on her landscape painting. They create cut paper and oil pastel landscapes working from photos of Alaska.

 

Andy Goldsworthy: Art From the Earth

Grade level: 5

Students study Andy Goldsworthy, a British artist who transforms nature into art, photographs it, and lets it return to nature. They then go outside to create art from only nature -- no tools allowed! When done, they photograph their work and write abou tthe art they made and the process they used.

 

Animal Portraits with Todd Sherman

Grade level: 1

Students are introduced to the colorful portraits of Fairbanks artist Todd Sherman. Todd enjoys painting animals, friends and family, often adding humor to his art by having animals acting and looking like people. Students paint their own “self-portrait" as an Alaskan animal in the style of Todd Sherman.

 

Asian Bamboo Painting

Grade level: 4

Students discuss the meaning of tradition as applied to Chinese/Japanese painting and calligraphy. They practice brushstrokes using traditional tools, create paintings of bamboo, mount them scroll-style with patterned borders and finish them by stamping with a red signature chop.

 

Birch Trees with Kes Woodward

Grade level: 6

Students learn about Fairbanks, Alaska painter Kes Woodward and how he paints birch trees. They practice watercolor techniques, and discuss composition and perspective as students create a water color birch tree painting.

 

Bird Drawing with Bill Berry

Grade level: 4

Students learn about the life and work of wildlife Alaskan artist Bill Berry. He is best known for his animal studies, published field sketchbook and children’s books. Students carefully examine an Alaskan bird photograph with care and practice different drawing exercises in their field sketchbook. Lastly they produce a complete bird drawing. ** A wonderful extension of this lesson is observing and drawing real mounted birds.

 

Butterflies and Bugs

Grade level: 2

Students look at butterflies and bugs in nature to learn about symmetry. They make a symmetrical butterfly or bug.

 

Butterfly Paper Sculpture

Grade level: 4

Artists and designers often look to nature for inspiration. French artist and naturalist E.A.Seguy drew intricate scientific illustrations of butterflies and created designs based on his drawings. Students learn about Seguy and produce a 3 dimensional paper sculpture butterfly with colored paper and oil pastel patterns.

 

Caribou on the Tundra

Grade level: 3

Students learn about the habits and habitat of caribou and their relationship to Athabascan people. They draw lichen growing on the tundra using layers of land to show perspective. Tissue paper and watercolor paint embellish the caribou on the tundra collage.

 

Chimpanzees and Dr. Jane Goodall

Grade level: 2

Students study Dr. Jane Goodall and her work with chimpanzees. They learn about the environment they live in and learn to draw a chimpanzee in its natural habitat.

 

Deep Space

Grade level: 4

Students learn how to use a light source to create of a sphere from a circle. Students create planets using oil pastels and learn a blending technique to give the impression of form. By arranging the planets and accenting the composition with stars and shooting stars, the finished product creates the illusion of Deep Space.

 

Diatoms: Microscopic Jewels

Grade level: 5

Students are introduced to the 17th century Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, the microscope he developed, his discoveries and his methods of recording those discoveries. They create a colorful microscopic view of diatoms using watercolors and black crayon 'resist.'

 

Dinosaur Texture

Grade level: 2

Students look at many dinosaur species and then concentrate on their shapes as they draw a dinosaur. The texture on the dinosaur's body is rubbed on from texture boards. Students collage and draw a background with layers of land for the dinosaur.

 

Flower Parts

Grade level: 3

The parts of flowers are discussed along with the botanist, Elizabeth Britton. Students then use oil pastels and shading techniques to create flower parts and assemble these parts to make a flower relief.

 

Frog in Monet's Pond

Grade level: 3

Students listen to 2 books: one about Linnea visiting Monet and the other about a frog who goes to Monet’s garden while he is painting the lilies on the pond. The lily pad paintings of Monet are discussed before students draw lily pads with oil pastels. A watercolor painting lesson is taught using the wet on wet technique to paint the pond. Finally, students are taught to draw frogs. They are cut out and added to the pond.

 

Hokusai Insect Prints

Grade level: 4

Students will learn about the Japanese printmaker Katsushika Hokusai, best known for his print “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa”. They will create Japanese children’s style prints, using insects as imagery.

 

Love Those Anemones

Grade level: Kindergarten

Students look at pictures of sea anemones and discuss radial design. They learn primary colors and then paint a large anemone with a wave-line background.

 

Magic Machines

Grade level: 3

Students learn about simple machines and how they work by looking at and discussing examples. They invent their own machine using colored markers and ingenuity.

 

Mondrian Trees

Grade level: 1

Students learn about Piet Mondrian who painted trees all his life using different styles. They then draw and paint a tree in the style of Piet Mondrian.

 

Mouse Colors

Grade level: 1

Students learn the primary colors and discover what happens when paints are mixed by experimenting on large paper. While their paintings dry, students read Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh. Then a class graph is created to see which colors they found. Each student traces a “foot” on their dried painted paper, cuts it out and glues it to the color graph in the matching color column.

 

Northern Migrations: Cranes, Caribou, Salmon

Grade level: 5

Students discuss northern migrations and study photos and artwork showing migrations of cranes, caribou and salmon. They consider design elements that create a sense of movement before using watercolors, oil pastel and cut-paper stencils to create a mixed media artwork of cranes, salmon or caribou in motion.

 

Ocean Life Diorama

Grade level: 4

Students look closely at photographs of life in tropical coral reefs or under Alaskan oceans. With inspiration from the photographs, students use oil pastels and construction paper to create an under ocean life diorama which includes fish or marine mammals in a habitat.

 

Olanna's Paper Sculptures

Grade level: 4

Students learn about the Alaskan Native artist Melvin Olanna. His stylized sculptures reflect his Inupiaq culture. Students create simple animal shapes from paper, using a paper scoring technique to make them look 3D. Paper sculptures are mounted on a background based on an Alaskan landscape.

 

Rachel Carson Silent Spring

Grade level: 4

Students learn about the life of writer, biologist and conservationist, Rachel Carson. Students learn to use complementary colors to show the effects of pollution on their plant. They create a before and after line drawing of an Alaskan plant using watercolor paints for color.

 

Raven Sculptures: John Hoover

Grade level: 3

Students learn about Alaskan Aleut sculptor John Hoover and study two of his raven sculptures, looking for shape and texture. After learning interesting scientific facts about ravens, they draw and cut out raven sculpture mobiles.

 

Salmon Summer in Kodiak

Grade level: 4

Through the book Salmon Summer in Kodiak, students learn about an Aleut boy who lives on Kodiak Island and fishes for salmon. Students create a 2D painting with warm or cool colors that incorporates designs inspired by salmon and traditional Aleut hunting hats.

 

Shaveroonies

Grade level: 2

Students create "shaveroonies"-- imaginative creatures from outer space. They are made by cutting paper (shaving it), texturing the pieces and piecing them together into fanciful creatures.

 

Shells with Georgia O'Keeffe

Grade level: 4

Students learn about the life and art of Georgia O'Keeffe, focusing on her large close-up paintings of shells. They play an observation game of hunting for shape, pattern and texture on photos of real shells, and then they use oil pastels to create a four-section study of actual shells.

 

Snowflake Prints

Grade level: 4

Students explore connections between math, science and art through studying the beauty and structure of snowflakes. They examine the snowflake photographs of scientist Wilson Bentley and Kenneth Libbrecht, creating original snowflake prints and cut-paper snowflake designs which demonstrate radial symmetry.

 

Sunflowers

Grade level: Kindergarten

Students read book Camille and the Sunflowers, a story about Vincent Van Gogh, and learn of his love for painting sunflowers. Inspired by this, they paint a sunflower of their own.

 

Textured Landscapes

Grade level: 2

Students study Grant Wood and look at his unique paintings of Iowa. They draw a landscape, texture and pattern it, and add color sparingly to complete their art.

 
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