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. 

first and second grade

Second graders became interior designers last week, mapping out their bedrooms from an overhead perspective.  Students created a key and symbols to stand for each piece of furniture, toys, door, or window.

They also did a watercolor emulation of Vincent VanGogh's  "vase with 12 sunflowers" painting

They first drew with pencil, followed by tracing over the lines with a crayon, the crayon serves as a wax resist for the watercolor, it helps paint stay in the lines.

Finished work will have the table and background painted.

 First grade was eager to bring some spring flowers and color to our snowy community, they folded and cut out petals, stems, and leaves to make a paper flower

Finished work will have a pointillism butterfly flying over the flowers.