Fireflies (Glow in the Dark)

This was a project I did with my 2nd graders at the beginning of the year.  I thought it would be neat to have them make something that would pop off the page...and glow!

First we learned about fireflies and how they are bioluminescent (integrating some science into this project). 

Then we created our value scale moonlit background using sponge brushes and paint.  We used cool colors (blue, purple, teal) and a little bit of white.  I absolutely love the effect of sponge brushes for blending.  

The next class we used oil pastels to draw our designs and details. They could choose which direction they wanted their paper to face (horizontal or vertical).  They added trees, limbs, grass, mason jars, leaves, etc.

After that they designed their lightning bugs on a separate sheet of paper.  I showed them examples of different perspectives and details they could add to the background.  We talked about how they needed to make sure they didn't draw them too small because cardboard would be going behind the bugs. They used sharpies for the outline and markers/construction paper crayons for the inside.

The last step was cutting out the bugs and adding cardboard pieces to the back using liquid glue. We used silver paint to add stars to our sky and GLOW paint on our bug tails.  They loved seeing their art light up when we turned the lights out. I got my glow paint from Michael's, it was very affordable and you don't need much.

4th Grade Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights)

This year I saw a new way of creating Northern Lights that I couldn't wait to try with my kiddos.  Here is the link to the blog where I found this amazing project Color and Collage Blog.  It has great instructions on it.

Everyone really loved the finished product, especially my young artists who made them.  

This is a project that works great with incorporating geography, science, and stories from tribes.

We discussed places that you can see the Northern Lights from and used GoogleEarth to check out where they are located (here are some main ones):

Canada

Alaska

Russia

Finland

Iceland 

Step One-Paint watercolor mountain paper

The first day we painted a sheet of watercolor paper with mostly blues, purple, pink, and black.  

Then was added some salt on top of the wet paint and then pushed plastic wrap on top of everything. I reminded the kids that they needed to work quickly so they paint would still be wet when they added salt and plastic wrap.

 Step Two: Cut and Glue down mountains

Draw and cut a stencil for the mountain paper.  The other blog has more details and a great example of this step.  I showed the kids how to cut and glue both of these paper down to look like a mountain range.  A great time to talk about foreground and background. 

Step Three: Create Chalk Lights

Now it's time to use your stencil to create the lights.  I made the kids put an "X" on the side of the stencil that matches their mountain range.  Then I showed them how to color the top of the stencil in chalk, drag it into the sky, and then smudge the chalk upward.  Some of them got very creative and used their stencil to create multiple lights.

 Step Four: Add Stars

The last thing we did was add starts with silver paint and toothpicks.  Everyone loves when the metallic paint comes out!