Bird Puppets

Untitled from Gabriela Elizalde on Vimeo.

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 In 2nd Grade we are exploring color and imagination.  Students drew characters and settings a couple of weeks ago (scroll down to see post) and now the students have created  a make believe bird puppet. We used oil pastels on butcher paper and then sewed the front and back panels together.   We took a vote and they all want to extend the lesson and work in groups to put together a play for their puppets.  In This Week in Art (video above)  you can see various students starting the process of creating a play.  It was great to see students helping students; you see last year I taught the Kindergarten and First Grade how to sew. Now we enjoy the fruits of our labour!  This is a big basket of fruits...consider co-operative learning, peer tutoring, social development, and the generous game of art making.

Design- Building Radial Design

As part of our Design Unit students created radial designs. Radial Designs are those that start at a center point and radiate out like the rays of the sun. When creating radial designs , students develop and practice hand orientation, placement, and spatial skills. They also use mathematical variables such as number, direction, and position. I believe the students really enjoyed creating these. Check out the video This Week in Art to see them working. I think one of the best parts is that they really have so much fun drawing that they don't even realize they are learning all of this great stuff!  For early finishers I challenged them to create radial designs with pattern blocks on the rug.  I think this was a great addition to their learning because it gives them another perspective of the same idea.

Artists as Designers-Designing Wrapping Paper

The kids were excited to learn that artists are responsible for designing mostly everything we see or use in our lives. Clothes, furniture, accessories and so much more are all the work of designers. By understanding this kids begin to realize the importance of design in our everyday lives. Here Kinder and First Grade students designed a wrapping paper with a motif. Sometimes they bring so much more to the table than we may expect... the student that created the first image said, "Look, I created an emotions motif." How wonderful is that?

Storytelling Through Art- Creating Characters and Settings

Storytelling is as old as the human race. This is how we share from person to person and across generations, who we are, where we came from, and what is important to us. Artists often tell stories with the artworks they make. Stories shared can be real or make-believe. Here, the students have shown us their unique experience in life through their art. They have
created a story through their artwork of an imaginary character in an imaginary land. These are from Kinder and First Grade.

This Week in Art...