Third Grade Painted Paper Leaves

This is the second year that third grade has made these beautiful painted paper leaves inspired by the secondary colors!  I love displaying the leaves at the county fair and at our school's fall festival.  

This lesson was inspired by a beautiful lesson from www.paintedpaperart.com/2013/09/fall-leaves-at-lake-george/Painted Paper Art. My version takes about three to four class periods. it takes one class to paint the entire paper a secondary color and another to add the texture. I like having two painting days so that students who miss one class can still complete a leaf. I have students mix directly on the paper and give them only the primary colors, black, and white. On the day we add texture, I do have them work with other students who used the same secondary color and give them a little of that color straight out of the bottle, as well. The other two days of the lesson are used to draw the leaf, cut out the leaf, and paint the black lines. Usually just a few have to finish on the last day.

This year, I did better with making sure students created a shape that would work well after being cut out (not too skinny in the middle). I demo drawing two leaf shapes to help students get started. We look at a few handouts about leaves draw the leaves on the back of the colored paper. The first step is to draw the center vein from the top to bottom of the paper. Once our laminator is fixed, I will laminate the leaves to make them even stronger.

Painting on the first day. We also discuss the tertiary colors that they create.

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Some students choose to add a stem. They draw a rectangle on their scrap paper and glue it on