2nd Grade

Welcome to the Second Grade Art page! Here you will find project descriptions of each project that has been completed along with picture examples.

Art to Remember Trees

Students discovered how the color wheel was created. They also were introduced to several contemporary artists who use all the colors to create their art. For this lesson, students used pencil to draw out the trees, they then traced them with sharpie and added the splash of color with liquid watercolors.

Texture Monsters

Students in 2nd grade listened to and studied the illustrations in the story, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. Students came away from the story with knowledge about texture (the feel or appearance of a surface). They brainstormed about what body parts ‘wild things’ might have. Students gave answers like claws, several eyes and tails. Then they thought about the textures that a wild thing might have. Students drew their own ‘wild thing’ and outlined in sharpie. They then used peeled crayons and texture plates to create texture. Finally students painted the surface with liquid watercolors.

Snowman Ornaments

As a class we reviewed the properties of clay. Then we flattened our clay into a perfect circle by rolling the clay into a ball, and tossing it on our paper. Students were guided through slipping and scoring each piece of clay onto their snowman's face. Once dry, the ornaments were fired in the kiln. Students then painted with colorful glazes. For the finishing touch, students selected a colored pipe cleaner that served as the hanger for the ornament and the earmuffs.

Painted Paper

Students in 2nd grade had a blast experimenting with a variety of paints and paint tools. Their objective for the lesson was to create at least one piece of patterned paper using a variety of tools.

Wintertime Starry Night

Students viewed a Youtube video that was similar to Vincent van Gogh's immersive experience that is on display in Pittsburgh currently. They noticed that van Gogh's art has many brushstrokes and little dashes. They first created a Starry Night inspired sky, then cut trees from their own painted paper. Students added details with white paper and a variety of glitter.

Matisse Inspired Fish Bowls

Students in second grade studied the art of Henri Matisse, specifically the later part of his career where he created collages with paper. They learned that Matisse called this type of art a paper ‘cut out’ where he ‘painted with scissors’. Students combined one of Matisse’s most famous paintings from 1911, Goldfish, with his ‘cut paper’ style to create their own interpretation of his work. Students created the painted patterned paper for the background first and then used a variety of colored paper for the fish bowl. This was challenging for some students to create an image entirely out of paper.

Felt Snakes

Students learned about wool including where it comes from and what can be made with it. Students learned that artists process wool to make a strong fabric called felt. Students created snakes by starting with a pipe cleaner and wrapping dyed wool around it. Then they added soapy water and began to roll the snake. They did this continually, adding different colors for stripes for a total time of about an hour and a half between several classes! Finally, students finished these snakes with a small felted tongue and seed beads.

Animal Marker Paintings

This lesson was designed and taught by our student teacher, Ms. Towery. She taught students that markers can be used in a variety of interesting ways including stamping and painting. Students began this lesson by drawing an animal of their choice. Next students used markers in a normal way, but then added water to turn them to paint! Students also had the choice of coloring on a paper towel and transferring color using water.

Family Portraits

Students in second grade created family portraits! To begin the lesson, students looked at famous artwork from the past 500 years. We studied how we knew these people were a family, what emotions were conveyed. Students also were asked to answer the question, ‘what does family mean to you’? After doing some brainstorming, students were given a piece of paper and shown how to create a person with form (and not a stick figure). Students took this direction and create all of the people in their family with detail. Once drawn in pencil, students traced over their lines with a fine point sharpie. Students then added color with colored pencil or crayon.