Art Project Archives

2024 - 2025

Take a walk down memory lane with some of our art projects from Grade one this year. Enjoy!

Lochside's New Mural

Cyanotypes and Nature

Today we explored how light from the sun can be a catalyst for chemical change. A cyanotype is a way to make a picture using sunlight and a special paper that turns blue when it reacts with UV light. It is one of the oldest kinds of photography!

For this art project, we used found objects in nature, designed a layout, and then let the sun go to work! After 15 minutes, the chemical reaction of the iron compounds in the paper with the sun was complete. To finish the process, we rinsed the paper off under water, revealing a brilliant blue underneath.

Can you guess which plants and natural items we used in our designs?

cyanotype paper, nature items, sunshine

Spring Flower Art

For this project we took inspiration from spring to create beautiful flower art. When drawing and painting our flowers, the artists practiced looking like scientists and adding realistic details. With the wet and rainy weather in the forecast, it was the perfect time to add sprayed-on watercolour droplets. In science we have been learning about the needs of plants to grow and survive, and the students were excited to give their flower paintings water, just like the showers happening for plants seen outside the school.

sharpie. liquid watercolours

Family Portraits

Happy International Family Day! Families are so important for us as we learn and grow. This week we created a special gift to show our families just how much we appreciate them. Through stories, sharing, and art, we have enjoyed learning about how families are unique and special. Take a look on the back of your family portrait for some special notes from your child.

sharpie, watercolours

'There is a Tribe of Kids,' book/art project

As we begin our focus on community, we took a look at animal communities, and the fun, collective nouns used to describe them. You may have heard of a swarm of bees before, but what about a flamboyance of flamingos, or a caravan of camels? We had a lot of fun with this art activity, using animal figurines to guide us in our drawings, and painting them with watercolours.

sharpie, watercolours

Shape Lion Art

This week we put all of our knowledge about lines and 2-D shapes to good use, creating shape lions! For this project we used many of the shapes we learned about and have been practicing. Can you spot them all?

sharpie. chalk pastel, painted/scratched paper for collage

Springtime Bunny Art

These sweet little bunnies focused on lines, shapes, and contrast. We began by looking at different plants for inspiration. Using green, yellow, and blue paint pens, we drew straight, curly, and squiggly stems and leaves for our backgrounds. Our bunnies were created using black markers to create short lines and simple shapes. Finally, using a classic technique (think way back to your own school days!), we added tissue paper flowers for texture and interest.

tempera paint pens, black markers, tissue paper

Art Gallery

Animal Stories

As we finished up our animal inquiry and dioramas this week, we took some time to make stories with our animal figurines out Beyond the Fence. Working independently or with a friend, the students had a great time creating a habitat and story setting, coming up with a story problem, and a solution. After photographing our stories, we spend some time writing and drawing the story events in our visual journals. Be sure to take a look for this writing project at the open house on Wednesday (2-4pm). The kids were so proud of their writing and story making. Well done!

plasticine, found items in nature

Animal Communication

This term we are focusing on the core competency skill of communication, and how strong communication skills help us build positive relationships, share our ideas and thinking with others, and enable us to communicate our needs and wants effectively. For this project, we looked at different animals on the 'Coast Salish animal cards' featuring words and art by various Coast Salish and Musqueam contributors. We shared how different animals communicate in special and unique ways. We then connected this thinking to our own communication skills. Each student chose an animal that they felt shared their communication style and skills, sharing their thinking through pictures and words. Join us for Wednesday's open house to take a closer look at our writing and drawing connections.

sharpie, watercolour paint

Heart Maps

What fills your heart with happiness? After reading Monique Gray Smith's book with this title, we shared the things that fill us up with joy and happiness using pictures and words.

sharpie, watercolour paint

Alma Thomas Inspired Art

Today we learned about a famous African American artist named Alma Thomas. Her story of not being able to go to many places including art galleries as a child in Georgia because of rules about her skin colour, to becoming a teacher, and then becoming an famous artist after her retirement, was thought provoking and inspiring! We learned about Alma's interest in space, flowers, and colours, and how this influenced her when creating abstract works of art. Using her technique of repeating short rectangular shapes to create abstract images, we made our own art using paint sticks.

tempera paint sticks

Valentine Animals

To celebrate Valentine's day we started off with a simple directed drawing to create a Valentine animal of their choice. When doing directed drawings, the children are actively working on following directions, orientation, directionality, and creating lines and shapes. We have fun during the process, flipping and rotating our pages to draw new lines and shapes. They are always so proud of learning to draw something new!

sharpies, construction paper

Lunar New Year Dragons

As we near the Lunar New Year, we have been learning different stories and traditions to do with new year celebrations. Today we heard the story of Nian, and created our own dragons using our growing understanding of shapes. We learned that the colour red, fireworks, and loud noises scared the dragon away, so we were sure to include our own fireworks in the sky.

A dot can be...

This week we are focusing on the character trait of creativity. The students had so many great ideas about how they use creativity, including making up stories, creating buildings and structures with blocks, inventing new games, and more. Our prompt today was to create something out of a dot, using creative thinking and imagination to come up with an idea and design.

Winter Branches

Our winter branches were inspired by all of the berries that we have been seeing on our trail walks and outdoor learning time. As we are learning about animals in winter, we have been noticing how these berries and branches may be providing shelter and food sources for birds, deer, and other animals during winter. To create this art we used cardboard to stamp on branches and needles. We then added berries with cotton swaps and icy frost using watercolour paint with a spray bottle outside.

carboard, tempera paint and watercolour paint

Scratch Art Fireworks and New Year Goals

Happy new year! For our first project of the year, we learned how to make our own scratch paper, using oil pastels to create a bright background, and then painting a special solution of paint and soap on top. Once dry, we were able to scratch our own fireworks display into the paper, using real fireworks images and videos as inspiration.

oil pastel, tempera paint, soap, scratching tools

Wild Wreaths with our Big Buddies

Today we made wreaths with our big buddies in Ms. Norris' class. We took our wreath frames and went for a walk together down the Lochside Trail, collecting and foraging for evergreen branches, sticks, leaves, and berries. Once back, we assembled and added bows, oranges, and other adornments. Thank you families for helping cut wreath frames and sending in special items to share. We had a great time creating our festive wreaths to take home for the holidays.

branches, berries, bows, oranges, and wire

Reindeer Collage Art

Today we learned a cute little poem about reindeer, followed by a collage project that helped us practice our cutting, gluing, and arranging skills. Final touches of bows and snowflakes and it's safe to say we are proud of our little reindeer!

paper collage, sharpie, ribbon

A Salmon Sky View

As we have been learning about all of the different animals involved in a salmon's journey, we were inspired to do a special art activity this week. For this project, we took the perspective of a salmon, considering what it sees over a lifetime from egg to spawn. After reading, A Salmon Sky View, by Carol McDougall, we used sharpies to draw the shadows and images seen by the salmon. After that we used a wet on wet technique and used cool or warm watercolours to paint the sky. Finally, a sprinkling of salt helped to create a watery affect.

watercolour paint, sharpie, salt

Nature Rangoli

This week we continued our learning about the celebration of Diwali as we read the story, The best Diwali Ever, by Sonali Shah and Chaaya Prabhat. In this story, two siblings practice working and playing together during the lead up to Diwali and the community Rangoli competition. Inspired by the pictures and patterns in the story, we took our learning outside to make our own Rangoli-inspired designs with our big buddies.

chalk, found items in nature

How to Make Friends with a Ghost

Today we read the story, How to Make Friends with a Ghost, by Rebecca Green. In this sweet little tale, the reader learns the best ways to make and care of friendly ghosts.

Our art project involved a collage of painted leaf prints and line-drawings of webs, spiders, worms, and more. To add depth to our pictures, white and black chalk pastel were used to create shadows and sunlit webs. Finally, our drawing and scissors skills were put to use creating our friendly ghosts.

Tempera paint, sharpie, chalk pastel

Starlit Pumpkins

This week's art activity was all about what one might see in a pumpkin patch at night under the full moon and twinkling stars. This fall-inspired project continued to develop our art skills as we practiced colour mixing, composition, collage, and playing with light and shadows. To do our colour mixing, the artists had fun using only primary colours to make variations of orange and green with red, yellow, and blue paint.

Tempera paint, oil pastel, chalk pastel

Watercolour Giraffe Art

Our art this week was inspired by Author and illustrator Catherine Rayner and her sweet story about a funny dog called Smelly Louie. In this story, Louie the dog travels around the neighbourhood trying to recreate his signature smell after having to have a bath (the worst). Catherine Rayner uses watercolours and different techniques that really showcase the splatters and sensations of texture in her books. You can almost smell and feel the water drops, bugs, and clouds in her pictures. We tried to recreate this style with our watercolur giraffes.

Sharpie, watercolour paint

Funny Turkeys

A turkey is

a funny bird.

His head goes

wobble, wobble.

The only word

he ever heard is "gobble, gobble,

gobble!"

Sharpie directed draw, crayon

Our Class Hive

We have been busy in Div. 7, learning about each other through our 'all about me' bags, and building our classroom community. Today we read stories and learned how bees work as a team to help each other, do important jobs, and take care of their community. For this art project, we created our own little bees and practiced using our scissor, glue and assembling skills.

sharpie, watercolour paint, printed paper

Dot Day Art

For International Dot Day, we read 'The Dot', by Peter H. Reynolds. The book shares the story of a girl who is encouraged to try something new and take a leap after she is challenged to “make her mark.” During this art activity we practiced trying something new, being brave, and using encouraging and uplifting words with each other and ourselves.

coffee filters, ink, water, crayon

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