Earth month projects begin with spaceships and cute caterpillars

 All of the classes have studied space and planets during the last few weeks so to kick off a month of projects made from recycled, reused or re-purposed items the 1st and 2nd grades created spaceships. They were given paper towel tubes, tp tubes, paper egg cups, egg cartons, streamers, ribbons, and scrap paper. It was up to them how to craft their space ship. There were quite a variety produced and each is different (copied ideas aside.) The 2nd grade wanted to fly theirs, the 1st grade wanted to wear them.  Interesting wing arrangements and quite a few have pilots or passengers.
The kindergarten got to do another critter--this time a caterpillar. We used water bottle, donated paper cut into strips, & old gift wrap. The kids made their own eyes, mouths and noses were left-over bits of tissue paper. We did add colored chenille stems for antena.

1st & 2nd grade scupting

One of the skills we wanted the kids to learn this year was sculpting so we have done several projects and gotten pretty good results although almost all of them said the animals were a bit hard to do.


We started with the 1st grade making pinecone turkeys like we did at the library. The class really enjoyed the feathered tail and forming all the parts of the head. Then everyone wanted his/her turkey to FLY!






The second grade had 2 very different materials to work with and managed to create both the turtle and the lizard although both took considerable attention to detail which is hard for a group that talks a lot. For the turtles each student had a ball of brown claydough. They were instructed to form it into the shell over a small pine cone then pinch out the head and all 4 feet and the tail. They were not to make each piece separately and reassemble it. Most of them were able to get the head out and the tail. The feet were a bit more of a challenge but some even got toe nails on them. 

The final sculpture for the 2nd grade was a foil lizard. This was a combination of math fractions to divide the sheets and manipulation of the foil pieces.

They cut the foil square into sections then created a head, legs and body. They learned to fold and roll the foil and were able to assemble a pretty good lizard with a curvy tail. Some were a little less gentle and had very tightly rolled legs that were a bit hard to mold but all in all they were able to complete the project. 

2nd grade studies Integrating art and studies

This project was the final one in our art studies grouping. They spent the month learning about different kinds of art and making examples. In today's project we discussed how we used artwork during the last year in each of the other subjects from fractions in math to making maps for geography and life cycles in science to drawing and painting a mosque in the religious/cultural studies.
Students were able to make drawings and color or paint them. Sometimes the detail work won out over completing the full assignment. Remembering their past project and what they learned from them or what project they did seemed to also generate a lot of discussion.
This is another project that I will definately repeat.


The first grade is busy constucting their ecosystem and as part of that project yesterday the students were to draw and paint a building in the area as well as a plant and an animal.

We apparently have lions and tigers but no bears in our parks. The kids used q-tips as brushes. I am looking forward to seeing the completed project and getting a couple of pictures to share. Nothing says art to the kids like paint. They are getting a bit of assembly help from the grownups but all of the artwork on this mural is theirs. Great job!

Weaving is completed and exploring the purple crayon

 We added 3 new colors this week to the basic weave and a handful of beads. Lots of happy squeals as each 2nd grader figured out how to best do his project. Some got theirs really tightly compacted and others kept them loose. We tied off quite a few of the ends into a kind of tassel.
The hardest part was letting me keep them overnight to take a picture before they could take them home. Both of the parent helpers got pretty good at the weaving too.


The kindergarten project started with a reading of the book " Harold and the purple crayon" then we talked a bit about using our imaginations. Each student was give a sheet of black paper, a purple crayon and construction paper in purple to assemble a crayon and start the project. Each table got a baggie full of purple items- beads, feathers, cloth, paper shapes, foam shapes, letters and more to create their pictures. Having them draw with purple didn't do much as it just melted into the black paper. They had a blast just gluing everything onto the page and using the materials. Although this project is supposed to be for kindergarteners, the concept part of it was a bit beyond them. The homeschool mom does have good ideas: http://www.kinderart.com/across/purplecrayon.shtml 

1st grade takes a look inside the body

Using these donated advertising layout forms the students looked inside the body and illustrated all the parts of the human form in multiple colors. They were able to then label them and discuss what was "inside" of them.

2nd grade rockets into space

We began by creating paper mache planets that did not turn out well so this time we created our own space ships. Using paper towel tubes, egg carton sections and colored paper each student created a rocket to hang in the classroom. Some of them got very creative and supplied launch pads. Others had flames shooting from the rear of the rockets. Each one was well designed and have flown well over their desks.

Making animal masks 1st grade

The elephant was really popular, no one wanted to be the monkey and adding noses and manes to the horse created gales of laughter. All in all it was a fun project but using styrofoam instead of paper plates made this much harder as the glue didn't want to stick. Sure made cutting the eye holes easier and attaching the pipe cleaners for ear pieces simpler.

Fall art projects at the school

Fall brings to mind the stories of the settlement of the United States and the relationship of the settlers to the  tribes of "americans" in place. Explaining the difference between the expected "indians" and the ones the settlers found did the trick. Explaining the bonnets  the women wore was much harder.
I think they really just wanted to create the people. The paper tube project is a bit of a stretch for the 1st graders but they managed nicely, painting the faces then dressing the rolls and applying yarn hair. The tops of the hats didn't happen but faces were produced and for a 1 hour project that they did with little help--great job.

The second grade has a new task--learning to put things into size perspective as they draw. We talked about how ugly the design would be before we were done which helped a lot! Drawing with light lines will be a challenge but they are doing it--petals were a good match for the centers and a few had time to add color. We had a little time to talk about Vincent VanGogh and his sunflowers. They want to do some of Leonardo Da Vinci's work and a bit of art history about him so we will see how the drawing goes. They did a fine job on this one.