End of the 9 Weeks

I am wrapping up the 1st 9 weeks of school (already?!?).  Here are some projects I'm doing with my students.  I find that the end of the 9 weeks is a great time to squeeze in some of those seasonal, or craftier projects that the kids love, and review some of the skills that may be a little lacking.  My students are a bit lacking in their craftsmanship- especially their cutting and gluing, so the more chances I have to review, the better.

Torn Paper Seascape- 3rd Grade

A watercolor wash for the sky, and torn paper for the sandy beaches and waves.

Owls- 1st Grade.  Combo of torn paper and cutting

Taken from the "Spectra" art series-the 1st teacher manuals MNPS ever provided. They were scripted, and came with slides.  But, there were a few projects in there that I still like to revisit.

Continuing the Owls

So, my  1st graders had so much fun making the owl sculptures from a post or two ago, that I decided to continue with Owls.  We have this awesome site called Pebble Go, where information about specific animals is available.  They have short, interesting facts, clear pictures, and also, often have video and sound of the animal.  We "researched" owls, and I showed them a variety of owl species.  Then, they used black paper (cause owls are nocturnal) and cray-pas.  I told them they could be as creative with color as they wanted, but it had to look like an owl.  So cute.

1st Grade is a HOOT this fall

If you follow Mr. E's blog, you know that he posted about TP owls that we did at a teacher in-service in August.  Fun project.  I modified it a bit for my 1st graders- I haven't saved up enough TP tubes, and I don't have the storage right now, so we just glued a paper roll.  But, the kids had a blast, and it was a fun project today.  We learned some sculptural skills, like balance in the creation of these owls.