A Trip To The Zoo...

It's that time of year when everyone is starting to get a bit restless and summer vacation is on the horizon so I'm working hard to keep everyones attention and keep art fun.  One of my favorite things about my job is working with other teachers to provide lessons in multiple subjects.  I really do feel that the more integration used in schools the better the learning experience will be.  This is why I was thrilled when one of our first grade teachers approached me about doing a project with them.  First graders are headed to the zoo in a few weeks and were starting a research project on animals in our zoo.  They would be using various methods to learn about their animal and creating a book so I was asked to help them create their book covers.  Due to the end of the year stuff that always seems to pop up I wanted to make sure this lesson could be completed in 2 class periods so that it would be completed before their trip to the zoo.  Week one was spent looking at the images of the animals and sketching and on week 2 I had card stock "book covers" with their animals and names ready for their creations!  I was amazed at how wonderful their work turned out.  You could definitely tell the students who had been working hard on their research projects and had seen many images of their subjects.  Here are a few of our Book Covers!

Caterpillar Collage

We are on a collage kick in the art room and 1st grade is no exception. Anyone who know's me will tell you that I absolutly ADORE Eric Carle. I love his books, his prints, everything about him. Because I do so love Mr. Carle I make sure that I use his techniques of painting paper to make collages as much as possible.

In first grade we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and then got started! My first graders spent a few weeks painting papers. We used green with drops of yellow to make the body and reds to make the heads. Then we spent a week tracing and cutting ovals from our painted papers to make our caterpillars. Color a background habitat and you've got yourself one cute caterpillar!

Enjoy!

Bugs, Bugs, Bugs

At the start of the year we review our geometric vs. organic shapes and do projects with them. One of the favorites is Color Bugs where students use geometric shapes to create their bugs. This lesson falls right when 1st grade is working on their "ug" words in their classrooms. Enjoy!