Recycling, Weaving, & TEAR BEARS- oh my!

First grade began our recycling unit with a weaving project using making use of the previously used table craft paper coverings cut into strips.

Most of my students had never done weaving before so this was our intro lesson.

This is one of my favorite books for introducing the basic concept of 'recycling' to children. 

We turned out weavings into blankets which I mounted on backing paper.

One day was devoted to "tear bears" - a pinterest inspiration I had found- and shrunk to tiny scale. 

 Lastly, we added tiny self-portraits (with the eyes closed - so cute) 

to put to bed with teddy and two pillows.

Kinder Pattern Pumpkin Collages

This lesson was broken down into a lot of parts....

Part one: A-B Patterns
I folded 9 x 12 yellow paper into four columns.
Students drew vertical AB patterns in each column, traced them with sharpie,
and colored them with oil pastel.
Then we painted the papers with yellow, orange, & red tempera cakes.

Part two: The Vine
Students drew a vine with a leaf on manilla paper.
They painted it in with green tempera paint.



Part three: Background
I have these great leaf texture rubbing tiles-
The goal was for students to do leaf rubbings and have it look like a leaves on the ground or in a pile. Then some of them colored them with marker.

Part four: Cutting (oh my..... big mess, but worth it.)
Students traced and cut a pumpkin out of their pattern painting.
They also cut out their vine and leaf.
We glued these on to the background.

Birdhouses with basics

Beginning of the year- Kinders & First graders practiced lines, cutting, shapes, texture/rubbings, basic color-mixing/painting....

and made these cutey birdhouses. 

They are all hanging on giant trees in the hallways. 

Positive/Negative Still Life Collage

The fourth graders observed the contour of separate still life objects.  They drew the contour line of each object on a separate small black construction paper.  They cut them out and saved the cut-out as well so they had the positive and negative piece.  They were then given liberty to create a composition from the pieces.  I also supplied them with hole punchers and the fancy-edged scissors.  These examples were done on 9 x 12 construction paper.