2nd Grade does crazy birds

 I thought a project based on Dr. Seuss would be a natural for this group but more than half of them said they'd never read his books. We talked about the kinds of creatures that are featured in the Seuss books and the students set out to create unique birds. They had a selection of materials to create their birds. They used large pom-poms, chenille stems, feathers, fun foam, and mounted them on Styrofoam blocks. We tried to use school glue for this project but it was a failure. We wound up using double back tape to attach pieces to gather in order to complete the project. They still had a lot of fun with it and we're proud to show off the projects.

Kingergarteners create birdhouses from milk cartons

 This project was one that the teacher found  and requested. The example was done on matchboxes but they are not very available and quite small for this age group. I had quart creamer containers and use those instead I did read the cartons in plain paper before the class so that the students could decorate them. First the students threaded the chenille stems through the predrilled holes on the top. They then glued on the roof pieces and the yellow band around the bottom as a fence.

They used fun foam triangles for beaks on fuzzy pompoms to create the birds. I had them put a little bit of paper shred onto the perch so that the bird would not fall into the birdhouse. All of them are heavily decorated with markers and crayons and turned out beautifully.

5th grade creates Calder type sculptures in motion

 This was such a fun project and good art discussion tool with the 3rd grade that I decided to try it again with the older students. They got the instructions to include three shapes, three colors, and at least five pieces. Some of them decided that they would prefer to work as partners, others solo.  The most complicated thing for the group to master was how to string the project onto the paperclips. Many of them  appear not to have used paper-clips with any frequency. At least one group just unbent the clips and used them as wire. Another student cut such small pieces that it was impossible to use the hole punch and we had to just needle punch them to hang them. Great discussion and one of them is now hanging on the hallway wall.