Illuminated Letters

Fifth graders learned about Illuminated Manuscripts.  We discussed how modern day books were influenced by these older examples that were created before the printing press was even invented.  Student noted how many manuscripts included an enlarged Initial for the first word on a page.  We then designed our own Illuminated Letter.  Students built up their designs using tag board, and used permanent markers to add color

weaving!

After painting our plates and adding patterns (see previous 2nd grade post).  Second graders learned how to create a circle weaving.  Great job 2nd graders!!

Freight Train

Kinders read the story Freight Train before setting off to create their own trains using collage.  First, we cut out a variety of different shapes to use for our train.  Next we discussed rainbow order by listening to the song Roy G Biv.  The train cars were then glued in rainbow order along the track.  Students added lines and shapes for details and finished it off with charcoal for smoke.

Elmer

Elmer is a story about a patchwork elephant.  One day, tired of being different, he tries to fit in with the other elephants by coloring himself grey.  Eventually, the color washes off and the other elephants are quite surprised to see it was Elmer all along.  Kindergarden students created their own Elmers by stamping with paint.

I can't seem to flip these:( 

Piranhas

Third grade kept the fish theme alive by creating their own Piranhas.  We read the story Piranhas Dont Eat Bananas, before setting out to draw our own.  Students folded their paper to create a sweet mild mannered fish...but when their paper was unfolded it revealed something much different!  Student decorated their fish with different patterns  and had to create something the fish could be eating.

Action Jackson

In the book Action Jackson, we meet the artist Jackson Pollock and discover how he created his unusual splattered paintings.  After reading the story, Kindergarteners made their own action paintings by dripping watered down paint into a box and rolling beads through the colors by titlting the box.  As an added bonus we observed how the primary colors we were using mixed to create secondary colors!