Our Very Busy Spiders

Kindergarten and first grade students read the story "The Very Busy Spider" by Eric Carle,
then created their our very colorful spider webs using oil pastels on black paper. Spiders were fashioned from construction paper and chenille stems and attached to their webs with yarn. When the webs were completed, the spiders all rested, "it had been a very, very busy day." 
Please click on any image below to get to the picture gallery.

 

Flag Collages

Our first graders had some fun choosing photos from magazines, ripping small pieces then gluing onto paper to create these American flag collages. The project went along nicely with the study of U.S. History in their regular classroom. Take a look! Click on any image to get to the picture gallery.

More Beauty in Symmetry

The butterflies and symmetry project for the 2/3 class was so sucessful (see the "Of Butterfies and Mathematics" post) I decided to give the first graders a try at creating their own butterfly art. They did an excellent job and all of them really understood the concept of symmetry, which they are also studying in their regular classroom.

Instead of perching on a tree branch, these butterflies are resting in cut paper grass, accompanied by all sorts of other little insects. The students enjoyed the challenge of cutting grass and removing every other blade. When one student was struggling a little with how to do it, another said to her "Just do a pattern; one, two, cut on two" and the first child immediately got it. It's so great to see how they look out for each other! Click on any image to see more.

Everyone Loves Vincent

These last few weeks three of our classes have been exploring the work of Vincent Van Gogh, an artist most children really enjoy. I think his bold brush strokes and gorgeous colors attract them to his paintings, and for me there is a child-like innocence and energy that radiates from his work that I adore.

 "Sunflowers" 1889

Since spring is in the air, we looked at Van Gogh's sunflower series of paintings and each class recreated this one together. We first painted the background in tempera paint on 24" x 36" paper. We noted Van Gogh used large brush strokes and often "mixed" his colors directly on his canvas. I printed out a copy of his original painting and cut out the vase, which I applied to our painted background. After looking closely at sunflowers in our classroom to understand their structure, each child created one of their own flowers using crayon or crayon resist and watercolors. We made our stems from tissue paper, attached them to our flower heads and arranged them in our vase. After their painting was completed, each child signed their first names only, just like Vincent. I think they are as gorgeous as the original. Click on any to get to our sunflower gallery.

 

Princes and Princesses

Since it can sometimes be hard for young students to get started on a drawing, I gave our first graders a crown as a starting point for a self portrait. We practiced making a "U" shape under the crown, talked about the different parts we needed to include in a self portrait and where those parts were on our faces. When they completed their drawings they decorated their crowns to complete their self portraits. Click on any image to see more princes and princesses.

 

Valentine Love

Our first graders learned a new technique while expressing their feelings about their love of family. After they drew a crayon heart and wrote some words they connected with Valentine's Day, the students had some extra fun completing their project. They covered the drawings with tissue paper, then "painted" water over the tissue. The color from the tissue paper was absorbed by the drawing paper everywhere they hadn't colored with crayon. The results are beautiful and colorful Valentine sentiments for some lucky family members. Click on any image below to see the rest of the valentines.

We've Got Fish!

No, not real ones...

Our kindergarten and first grade classes started a fun two week project by closely observing a glass fishbowl. We talked about what a contour line means in art as I traced the outside edge of the bowl with my finger. The students drew the line on paper in black crayon, then it was time to fill their bowls with fish.

After looking at lots of pictures of fish, we talked about the things they all have in common; eyes, mouths, fins, scales. Everyone filled their bowls with lots of fish, cut out their bowls and glued them onto orange construction paper. Since all fish need water to live, the students glued torn pieces of blue tissue paper over each fish. Last step, draw a surface for your bowl to sit on and decorate it. Now, we've got fish!

Click on any image to get to the picture gallery and see lots more fish!.

 

I Love Winter Mittens

Our first graders had fun making these mittens by gluing tissue paper squares onto paper, using lots of different colors. When done gluing, we sprayed the mittens lightly with water. Like magic the colors blended with each other around the edges!

The next week, students cut out and glued their mittens onto drawing paper. What a huge leap this age makes with their cutting skills from kindergarten, no difficulty cutting at all. We then talked about the things we liked about wintertime; snow of course, hot cocoa, being home with our families, sledding and skating and Santa Claus! 

After we spelled out the words on the board the kids filled their backgrounds with the things they liked most about winter. The project was lots of fun to create and we got a chance to reflect on our thoughts about the season while practicing our best handwriting!

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Color Collages

Kindergarten and first grade classes explored primary colors while making collages from cut paper. We talked about what primary colors are and how we can mix them to create all the colors in the world! Kinders got to practice basic cutting and gluing skills (we can count out dots of glue instead of pouring), first graders were encouraged to create three dimensions with the paper... fun, fun, fun!

Clicking on any image brings you to the picture gallery.