Pumpkin Crazy with Paper Strips

PUMPKIN SCULPTURES:  My 3rd graders are in the process of creating pumpkin sculptures to hang from the ceiling out of strips of paper.  They are working in teams of four and it has been a great cooperative lesson for them.  We cut many many many 1" strips of orange paper and a few green and brown for stem and leaves.  I saw a post titled "Big Foot Cinderella" and for the life of me I can NOT remember who to credit it too...so I apologize now, but their art work was made of strips where they made Cinderella's head to hang from the ceiling.  This inspired me to try the pumpkins!  They used "art clamps" instead of calling them clothes pins which was a FABULOUS tip!  If anyone knows the person I owe credit too, please let me know.  I will publish photos when their pieces are finished.

WOVEN PUMPKINS:  2nd graders just finished their woven pumpkin pieces which they loved.  We began by painting designs and splatter painting an orange & yellow sheet of construction paper.  Next they cut out the pumpkin shape and the yellow strips to weave through.  They glued this on a blue square sheet of paper.then added the stem and leaf.  Our final piece was our Pumpkin Poem we had learned which they attached to their artwork and can say in their sleep.  Poem below:

Pumpkin poem One day I found two pumpkin seeds. I planted one and pulled the weeds. It sprouted roots and a big, long vine. A pumpkin grew; I called it mine. The pumpkin was quite round and fat. (I really am quite proud of that.) But there is something I'll admit That has me worried just a bit. I ate the other seed, you see. Now will it grow inside of me? (I'm so relieved since I have found That pumpkins only grow in the ground!)

Scaredy-Cat, Splat!

Splat the Cat is an adorable little thing!  We decided to use Splat as our inspiration for our latest Kindergarten and First grade art!  We read the book then looked at the shapes of the cat for how to draw Splat using charcoal pencils. 

Many of you have asked for my how to power point.  Here is the link:  http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/huskeyj72501-1427599-scaredy-cat-splat-how-to-draw/

 They added wiggly eyes and a sentence strip with the Title and author.  Next week they are going to add the stem, leaf, mouse, spider and finish out their pumpkin!  They are LOVING them!

My favorite nieces...Ruby and Rosy

 

MONSTERS

 Kindergarten and first grade learned the poem MONSTERS!  It was super scary.  We made up motions and became really EXCITED with our presentation!  I found the poem in my collections of poems from many years ago, and not sure where I found it...sorry.

Monsters

Some monsters are big;

Some monsters are small.

Some monsters have two eyes;

Some have none at all.

Some monsters are short;

Some monsters are tall.

But I’ve never met a monster

Who could scare me at all!

Harold and the Purple Crayon

Author MIchael Shoulders - N is for Natural State

Author, Michael Shoulders, visited our school last spring and did an amazing presentation!  He talked to our students about being readers and writers, getting books published and finished out with a great RAP to go along with  his book about our state, N is for Natural State.
***HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU HAVING HIM TO YOUR SCHOOL***

After his visit we reread his book N is for Natural State and then I had these old wood laminate panels given to me after they had ripped up their floor and we painted Arkansas pictures on them with Tempera. 

Panda's inspired by the book Zen Shorts

My 3rd-6th graders have been working on a panda piece after our read aloud of the book Zen Shorts by John Muth.
      The story is about a panda bear that shares short stories with three children in order to teach them life lessons.  The illustrations are beautifully made with water colors.  After reading the book my students wrote connections to the story (what the story reminded them of) on slips of paper that had a small picture on it.  They glued their connections on chart paper.

Next I made a power point with a variety of panda images both real and cartoon for the students to look at as we discussed the shapes of the body and looked over different positions the panda could be placed.  We did a few sketches to make our decisions on our pandas then I gave them large sheets of watercolor paper for them to draw their art on with a pencil first then trace with sharpie before we painted. 

I asked them to add details to their background in pencil as well.

 Then we moved into painting their pieces.  Once their entire piece was painted they were instructed to use straws and paint to "blow" branches on their papers to make the Japanese Cherry Blossoms for part of their piece. 

Finally we had our Chinese teacher teach the students how to say Panda in Chinese and show them how to write the Chinese characters for panda on their papers.  She brought them calligraphy pens from China and their special ink to write their characters. 

Sock Monkey's Travel the USA

Sock Monkey's Travel the USA

I loved the adorable sock monkey's that I have seen so many art teachers do with their students and I wanted to try something similar with a writing piece and story.  I found the book Monkey and Me by Emily Gravett that is a great for younger students with its repeated patterning and predictions of what animals will they meet next.  It also has adorable illustrations.

So I read the book along with my kindergarten - 2nd graders and then we created our monkeys.  The next piece was the writing piece.  We talked about what if we took our monkey's on a trip with us around the USA.  We looked at a map of the states and they gave a million different stories about places they had traveled.  Then they created a "postcard" to attach with their artwork from a state they had previously visited.  They turned out really colorful and we have had many compliments!