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!

Color Zoo

Each year when 1st grade uses geometric shapes to make "Ug Bugs" the 2nd graders read Lois Ehlert's Color Zoo and use geometric shapes to make various animals that we might find in a zoo. This falls early in the year so we make sure to review what animals we would find at the zoo and how to use overlapping. We also have a review of how to best use the glue so we don't have a huge mess!

Every once in a while I will have a parent come and ask if I need help and I will usually ask them to use the ellison machine to cut out the geometric shapes in various colors. This is also something that I will leave for a substitue to do during my planning period. It makes it much easier on me when I get ready for this project!

Enjoy a tour of our Color Zoo!

Zebra

Snake
Monkey

Lion



Bear


Flamingo

Bird

Alligator

Perky Penguins!

Once again Pinterest to the rescue! Just when I'm feeling like I need a new idea there they are, waiting for me on my board. It's the best way to keep all of the ideas in my head organized and in a place where I can remember them.

This lesson was done a while ago but I'm just getting around to posting pictures. We made penguins for winter and I think they are just adorable! Lot's of scissors, glue and ribbon. (All of my favorite things!)

I did this lesson with 2nd grade and they turned out fantastic, such personality. The background is a sheet of construction paper, however I would like to have a painted paper background next time. Then we did construction paper for the body, head, etc. I found some fun holiday paper that the kids used for the ear muffs. This is also a fun way to use wrapping paper.

Take a look at our penguins!

Peacocks!

Pinterest is my new obsession! I mean seriously, what an amazing way to find lessons and project ideas. This is a lesson that I pinned and am so glad we tried it. My 4th graders have created the most adorable peacocks using a bunch of different techniques and I'm so glad to share them. We spend quite a bit of time on this project getting all of the papers ready so that we could assemble our collages. They were totally worth the time because they are a total hit and project that I will be sure to add to my "Must Do" list for next year.

Week 1 was spent using shaving cream and paint to create a marble background. All you do is spread out the shaving cream and drop the paint onto it. Then take a chop sick or paint brush handle and swirl it around. Be sure to keep from totally mixing the colors! We used blue and purple paint for this step. I thinned it down a bit with water and we used straws to drop it onto the shaving cream. Next year I want to try this step with liquid water colors.

After you swirl the paint you lay your drawing paper down onto the surface and make sure to get contact for the entire paper. Then just peel it off the shaving cream and scrape the shaving cream off and viola your paper looks like marble! Just let it dry on the drying rack and clean up. Clean up takes a while but the good thing is your room smells fantastic!

Week 2 we created the peacocks heads and feathers. We used marbles in pizza boxes to create the feathers. Then I added the Crayola Pearl paint to my blue paint to make the peacock heads special. (Does anyone know where you can buy just a big bottle of the pearl paint? I can only find the little ones in a 3 pack with other stuff.) Make sure to add lots of texture to the blue painted papers so their heads look cute!

Week 3 is assembly! We talked about drawing on the back so you don't see the pencil marks and making sure to have a big peacock and fill the page. We used construction paper to make the feathers pop and added wiggly eyes to make them look sweet! Finally I added the glitter glue (found on sale after christmas!) around the feathers for a little something special!

Take a look at our perfect peacocks!

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!

These are a few of my favorite things...

One of my favorite things about looking at other teacher's blogs is seeing some of the things that they use in their classroom. So with that in mind I have decided to post a few of my favorite things that I use in my room. Some are quite boring but make my day much easier and a one is my favorite new find for teaching color mixing. Enjoy!

My GIANT pencil sharpener. X-Acto brand's commercial quality pencil sharpener. I've had it for at least 3 years and it's still going strong!


Small hand held sharpeners for the colored pencils. Around $0.99 each and they save me from having to sharpen a million colored pencils each day.

My scissor caddy. Easy pass out and clean up of scissors PLUS they match the colors of each table.
Fizzy Tub Colors are my current favorite! I'm sure people with small kids at home know all about these but they're new to me. Each container has 100 tablets with the primary colors that I can use to teach color mixing. I just tell the kids that we're going to be mad scientists in the art room that day and they LOVE it!

So who is this Sassy Crayon??

I am an elementary art teacher in Upstate South Carolina and I LOVE my job! The fact that I am paid to create art and encourage imagination each day is amazing. I love looking for projects, ideas and inspiration everywhere I can and I hope that this blog will be just that, a place for sharing ideas, projects and problems. So sit back, relax and let's get inspired!