First grade artists have been learning about Impressionist artist Claude Monet.  After studying Monet’s water lily paintings and viewing a video about his work, they began their own Impressionist paintings.

Monet’s Japanese Garden Painting

We studied the way Monet used his brushstrokes to make the long leaves and branches of the willow trees, and then began our painting.

Next came our bridges – we used our extra green paint from our trees to paint a piece of white tagboard with Impressionist brushstrokes.  When it was dry, we drew a bridge with black crayon, cut it out, and placed it carefully over our water.  We also cut and decorated a beautiful swirly picture frame for our painting.

And finally – a frog hopped from our lily pads and landed on our painting!

Next time – I want to read Lisa Jobe Carmack’s Philippe in Monet’s Garden – the perfect tie-in to this project!

Many, many thanks to Painted Paper for this project inspiration – my first grade kiddos loved it!  Your photo stream and blog are awesome!