Kindergarteners make Lady Liberty "statues"

This week the group was studying monuments and what better monument to create than the Statue of Liberty? 


This was a bit time consuming and  involved for the kindergarteners so I cut and assembled the base before class of a tp roll and a cardboard egg cup. The kids threaded the straw through to make the arm with a bend, added the crown, and covered the whole thing with green tissue paper. They made the torch by themselves and seemed to have a good time adding the flames. They were not really sure about using their fingers to spread the glue but managed well when supplied with wet paper towels to wipe their fingertips.


They really turned out well and will be made by the 1st grade in about a month. 

Kindergarteners make presidential stick puppets

Doing stick puppets is always fun especially when the students are able to embellish them and make them unique. This project was no exception. Half of the class got blue paper and a George Washington head, the other half black paper and an Abraham Lincoln head. They were to color the face then assemble the puppet from the hat down on a wide crafts stick. When most of the class had completed that stage, I posed the question "what do you think about adding arms to the presidents?" and off they went. Not only did they add arms but many decided that feet and shoes were in need as well.
The project gives them a chace to work with cutting and gluing but lets them create a more individual project than just giving them the pieces. By the way, all the puppets were immediately chatting with one another. Funny how that works out.

Dinosaur prints and fossils

Another great clay project. I made the dinosaur feet in advance using femo clay and baked them then brought the rest of the items in the fossil box for the 1st grade class to use. We got to talk about dinosaurs and that they all seemed to have 3 toes, how fossils were made and what might be in fossils along with dinosaur tracks.

3rd grade makes sock creatures

This was a more complicated project than I ever envisioned! When I said you can design what you want, I didn't really expect the variety and creativity that resulted from this group. We learned a lot along the way including NO ONE knows how to thread a needle or knot thread. "the socks have holes in them"--yes they are old and are ready to go to another life! saying "I can't do this" enough times might get the teacher to do a few stitches for you but not many.


Thanks to several wonderful donors we had a bag of felt, 2 bags of socks, and lots of pom-poms to use. It took 5 weeks to complete this project but as each one got done the joy level increased dramatically.


We went through the process from drawing our own patterns (no one understood patterns), cutting the pieces out and beginning to assemble them (great discussions on assembly lines and other manufacturing processes), sewing the components together and adding extras like the chenille stems and pom-poms, and lastly attatching all of the pieces to the socks. We found out that your hand does not fit into the sock if you sew the back to the front (no matter how many times I said to be careful not to do this.) We also learned a bit more about some of the creatures we made like do squid lay eggs? one of life's many mysteries.

After school group paints barn in the snow

We took on a challenging project again and the group really excelled! This design is painted on a 5"x7" pine board. The students drew the design then used a scribe to add detail to the barn and shed. They learned how to wash on colors and even mastered some patience in the 3 day process to complete the project.


 We used a gift I recieved as the "original" and went from there. Trees were a bit tricky but everyone got the trees looking great and of different heights. Then there was the spattering of snow to finish the work off. What a fun mess. Everyone signed their work and as far as I could see there was not a frown on any face--far from it.


I am posting this larger than normal to be able to see the detail in the work. Hard to believe the group are 4th and 5th grade students. 

Textures in art for Kindergarten & 1st

January the kindergarten is moving into textures in art. This project fits into the study theme of day and night and earth. We started with a review of textures present in the classroom and a book, "Moon to Sun" by Sheila Sampton,  then developed the picture focusing on which textures were in the picture. We used textured metallic tissue, sand paper, felt, cardboard, a perforated doily, cotton ball, sequin stars for examples of rough, smooth, bumpy, fluffy, and soft.


This is also a skills project on gluing and handling various types and sizes of objects. It is hard for the kids to remember not to put the glue stick on items like the cotton ball, felt, and stars as they stick to it. We also worked on how to properly close the glue sticks to return them to the tote. 

The second texture project for the kindergarten was to construct the picture following directions to find a "fuzzy stem" and glue it on for a flower. Each group of students were given a plate full of items to "find"  each type of texture from. The large doilies were rough and served as the sun the remainder built our flowers and gave the group an additional gluing activity. 

The 1st grade took on a slightly different type of project to demonstrate texture by creating a mitten bookmark. Students were given a felt mitten and a selection of materials to identify fuzzy, soft, hard, rough and smooth. Each was able to create his/her own design then the mittens were attached to a  thick ribbon to serve as a bookmark. It was a very popular project with lots of variety in the designs. 

2nd grade creates patterns and designs

This is similar to a project we did in the kindergarten in the fall. Each student wrote their name on a sheet of paper being instructed to write it as large as possible and to make dimensional letters. The students were then instructed to fill the rest of the paper with a variety of shapes and fill each shape with different designs and colors, ie.: a square with wiggly green lines, a triangle with purple commas, etc. Once they got into the project the variey grew. At one point many of the students realized that a puzzel could be created by cutting out the shapes.