3rd Grade Laurel Burch Cats



Third grade students created these Laurel Burch inspired cats last year during our statewide testing period.  This was a great project to do during that time because they could work rather independently while they were in and out of my classroom due to testing scheduling. 

 

We first discussed Laurel Burch and her cat paintings.  We then drew the cats together and the students added their own patterns.  For the students who missed the drawing demonstration, I created a step-by-step "how to draw" handout.  We drew on colored construction paper, traced with black sharpie marker, and added color with regular and sparkly construction paper crayons.

 

 

(My apologies for my poor photography skills in this post!)

Kindergarten Spider Webs and Spiders

Some background:  This project was the result of an incredibly messy painting project I started with Kindergarten a few weeks ago.  I walked out of school that day with paint just about everywhere and decided on the spot to hold this project for a month or so while I recovered my sanity!  I started a Jasper Johns inspired number painting with the kids, which I have done (and successfully!) in previous years.  Due to time constraints this year, I'm finding myself rushing through procedures and demonstrations so that the students have time to work.  Maybe my lack of direction at the beginning of the project or my weak procedure reinforcement caused the mess...or maybe I just have extra messy kids this year!

So, I scrambled to find a non-messy project for the Kindergarteners and stumbled across these very colorful spiderwebs on Art with Mr. E's blog.  Perfect.  Drawing and coloring, while reinforcing their knowledge of pattern.  I always attempt to tweak the art projects I find, so I had the students make colorful spiders out of Model Magic to attach at the end.   

Maybe we should have had a conversation about REAL colorful spiders and their poisonous attributes as I overheard a parent in the hallway talking about this very thing.  Oh well...



5th Grade Line Designs

Fifth grade studied line, line patterns, and line's impact on shape.  They first started out with a looped line across the page and then filled in the spaces created by the loops with a variety of line patterns.  They had the choice to color their work in black and white, or a 3-color limited palette.