First Grade Birdhouses

 

As soon as Valentine's Day is over, I immediately start dreaming of spring. Late winter in the Midwest is a dreary, gray landscape. Not like the winter wonderland of December! So by the end of February I'm ready to pull out the bright colored construction paper and get some color on the walls. The first grade students took two classes to complete these adorable birdhouses. We were inspired by the pictures here. The first class was spent making the shapes of bird houses and birds, adding patterns with oil pastels, and painting with watercolor. For the second class, we glued down white strips of paper to a colorful background and used black tempera cakes to make "wrinkles" on our birch tree trunks. Then we cut out our bird houses and birds and glued them in our trees. The really add a splash of color to our dull winter and help us look forward to spring!

Keith Haring inspired dancers

Fourth graders spent this week finishing up a couple of projects. The first one was a project inspired by artist Keith Haring. You can find some great information about his life here: http://www.haringkids.com/lesson_plans/keith-haring-biography

Haring's figures are "universal." They could be anyone: rich or poor, young or old, boys or girls. It doesn't matter who they are or where they come from, because everyone likes to dance! We started out by making some figures on paper that could bend and move like Haring's. We made some practice poses with our own bodies to see where the joints should be. We then cut the figures out to create both positive and negative space figures. They were glued down to a different colored background. Then we outlined the figures and added "wiggle" lines with black paint!