Mixed Media Treehouse Collage with 1st Grade

Oh I love these treehouses...not sure who I stole this idea from, so I'm not claiming it as my own...just a wonderful project for 1st graders.

I break this down into 3 days...day one painting the landscape/background...day two building the tree and adding leaves/flowers/apples we read "The Apple Pie Tree" and day three is creating the tree house and ladder.

Finished Treehouses by 1st Grade

This is my second year teaching this project. It lasts about 3 class periods and has really fun results! The kids love this!

Landscape Introduction

1st Grade is learning about Landscapes right now. I tried this project last year and loved it. The kids get really excited about it too because it involves creating a Tree House! 

Day One: We write about the word "Landscape" in our Idea Books. We look at several landscape paintings and identify the Foreground, Middleground and Background. This is when we use the "Magic Brush" to point out things on the projector screen. It makes it fun...if you don't have a "magic brush" decorate a piece of cardboard with sparkles and glitter after you cut it in the shape of a paint brush .Voila...fun to talk about art now!

We do a practice sketch in our idea books first...but essentially we start with a horizon line near the top of our paper...leaving room for some middleground mountains or what have you. We draw large flowers/plants in the foreground down at the bottom...letting our grass get smaller as it goes back into 'space' towards the horizon line. And on the horizon line we create a middleground...mountains, clouds, rainbows...(yes rainbows...) and of course a CIRCULAR sun...not a corner sun. 

4 cups of very watered down tempera to keep this painting on the lighter side...

light green, dark green, purple and blue

i forgot to water this table's paint down and it actually looks pretty great...however when you don't water it down you loose all the oil pastel. 

I demonstrate how you can draw into the wet paint with oil pastels too...and if something gets covered up, next week we can go back with oil pastels on top of the paint and bring things 'back to life'...cause oil pastels are the greatest. 

Day Two: Building a Tree (coming soon)

1st Grade Treehouses

We did this fabulous project before Christmas but I have been slacking...so here the pics are! I loooooved this project. It was really fun and turned out beautifully. I got the idea from pinterest/artsonia. I wish i knew who to give credit to!

Great for landscape, mixed media, collage....architecture...seasons...

This project took three 1 hour class periods.
Day One: Paint background.
Day Two: Build tree/leaves.
Day Three: Treehouse and ladder.

 

 Here's the finished product:

 

 

Day One: Talk about Landscapes and paint background.

 

 

 

---- White 9"x18" paper, tempera paint, oil pastels, water cups and variety of sizes brushes----

 

Draw horizon line first with oil pastel, build mountains or hills on that line. Then start painting grass...then sky.

 

I gave out a tray of blue, green, yellow, white and purple tempera paint in little cups.

 

Day Two: Building the tree.

 

We did some tree sketches in our idea books first and looked at some images of trees to inpsire us.

 

I cut a 9x12" paper in half lengthwise and gave this to each kid.

 

First we drew a curved line from the top of one corner down to the bottom on each side.

Cut along the line and save all scraps for branches!

 

These are upside down...but you get the idea.... 

 

Draw a "V" at the top of the tree....

Cut it out.

Cut up scraps to make branches.

 

Collage together! (Right side up of course...)

 

 

 Day 3: Treehouse and ladder.

 

I handed out a small rectangle of white paper for the treehouse. We reviewed architecture and I handed out my architectural detail papers to give them ideas for windows, doors, building materials etc.

 

We drew 2 house ideas, one on the front and the back and they chose their favorite one. Then they outlined with a black marker and colored with crayons. This could have been done with watercolors also, but I was worried about time!

 

Next, we cut those out and glued them into our tree branches.

 

Lastly, we built the ladder which might be my favorite part! I cut a bunch of strings and gave each student 2. The best way we found to glue the strings was to "draw with glue" two long lines coming down from the treehouse going all the way to the bottom of the tree. Then just lay the string in the glue. The key is not to touch it too much or it will stick to your fingers and mess up. I helped a lot with this step.

 

For the ladder steps, I dropped a pile of toothpicks and wooden coffee stirrer sticks in the middle of their tables and they could use one or both for steps. We snapped the coffee stirrers in half but the toothpicks were just the right size.

 

They also drew lines of glue across the tree and just layed the sticks in the glue. For the most part, they stayed in place. Tacky glue might be better or Elmer's Glue All would probably do the job.