3rd Grade Castles

This project can be adapted to different grades.

We are studying a unit on "Architecture" for 3rd and 4th grade. I wanted to start out with something that would review using a ruler, our imagination and basic shapes.

I made a very quick power point showing different castles from around the world, had different castles terms defined, and then spoke about what we would be doing.

They used rulers to create straight lines, they were to draw their castle anyway they would like. I showed a brief demonstration on rulers, basic castle shapes, how to draw a drawbridge, etc. and then said add "your own flare/creativity". They had a texture sheet on how to add different textures such as, bricks, stones, polka dots, checkerboard, etc.

We used a 11" x 17" white constructions, drew in pencil line, outline with sharpie markers, and colored in with crayons or markers.

Check out these amazing castles! ( did see some cool castle design projects on Deepspacesparkle and ms.julie's art school)
I really wanted the students to feel like real building designers and architects!

2nd Grade Jim Dine Studies

This project is a quick way of introducing Jim Dine, Color, Pattern, and a series/study in art.

We started out with  a teacher made slideshow of info and images of Jim Dine's work. Then we added 6 hearts (2 rows of 3). I emphasized for the hearts to be medium. Then we used rulers to create 2 straigh lines through each row of 3 hearts.

We reviewed/introduced warm and cool colors by discussing and looking at the color wheel. I thought the best way to make it interesting and stick in their minds was to play a little education game. Whenever I would say a warm color they would act like they were really hot (fanny themselves off, saying "whoo it is so hot in here" etc.) and for cool they would shiver, rub there arms, etc. THEY LOVED IT!!!!!

Here are some examples. These lovely hearts are created on 9" x 12" white construction paper and oil pastels. Hearts were with warm colors and background with cool colors. THey were allowed to color in solidly or with patterns.

PLUS: it is a great way to do a seasonal project for Valentines Day. 2 birds with one stone.

The last one did not stick to warm and cool colors like discussed in class, however their creativity with all the colors/patterns looks wonderful!