Shapes with scissors

We are working on Learning Targets with our school; using tools properly is something we felt was very important. Kindergarten is all about the basics, and when you are mixing secondary colors or drawing and cutting shapes, it's a constant struggle to make things interesting for kids. I continue to incorporate characters and books that students know and love.

The last two weeks have been the start to clay projects at Cedar Creek; and to start clay, I typically read a story related to the project.  This year, Kindergarten will be creating clay caterpillars, they will experiment with sculpting the clay and adding texture (Post coming soon.) We read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and created a colorful caterpillar by drawing and cutting circles. I even introduced the "magic trick" of cutting two and three shapes at once.

 Students draw and cut their own shapes, they add in details like a face and called it the very hungry kindergartner.  They added a background of a leaf and even draw colorful fruits and vegetables using shapes.

We also looked at organic shapes and used some organic shapes to create a penguin. Students draw and cut their own penguin and complete a penguins home in the background. 

Mosaic Homes

Last week, first grade students created a fantasy home, they drew windows, doors, and a unique roof, they then cut their homes into squares and rectangles to create a mosaic style work of art.  They cut 4 - 6 strips and glued them back together with a small amount of space around the tiles they cut.

3rd Grade Kandinsky abstract circles

Students started last week by learning about Kandinsky and how much of his work was influenced by music. Students folded a sheet of paper and created different abstract circles, much like the work of Kandinsky.  Each box had to have a different amount of colors and circles with different backgrounds.

This week we are starting our two week (2, 1 hour classes) project of having students cutting and gluing background, circles, organic and geometric shapes onto their paper.

The three martians

2nd grade took a look at the work of Picasso and his piece "The three musicians"

Students practiced symmetry by folding and cutting out interesting shapes to create martians

Students created a moon background using thick lines

they then used the side of their chalk to create a dust like moon cover

they used ovals to create craters

They added the moon sky with stars 

students glued on their martians