Giraffes Eat Leaves!

 WOW, Giraffes eat leaves! Nearly every kindergartner had this pre-knowledge to share with us as we began our giraffe discussion. Day 1- we talked about giraffes and their environment, body structure and quirky characteristics, like the number of vertebrae in their neck, and the speed at which they can run. We looked at a small collection of giraffe images to gain a better understanding of their body structure, then embarked on our attempt to draw giraffes! We used brown tempera and cut up sponges to give the giraffes their unique coat or "finger print." Day 2- We watched giraffes in their environment through Nat. Geo. and talked about their environment. Then we gave our giraffe an environment with trees full of leaves to eat. The kindergartners each made up a story for the giraffe environment. Overall, a successful learning experience for them and a good starting point for me to build on next time!

Van Gogh inspired Sunflowers

 The First Grade Students have been busy creating still life paintings based on Van Gogh's Sunflower painting. We started the unit by studying Van Gogh's life, works of art, and painting process. The students really enjoyed this video I found on YouTube: Van Gogh Portraits We then created "Impasto" paint by combining sawdust and tempera paint together into a thick, chunky substance. I mixed the paints to begin with, but as the unit went on I allowed the students to decide if the paint needed more sawdust, or water and allowed them to mix it as needed (a "pinch of sawdust" or a "squirt" of water) -- -- they loved doing this. I set up a sunflower still life in the classroom and we talked about foreground, mid ground, and background and how to make each section stand out, but function together as a whole. Before adding paint the first graders "sketched" their sunflower still life including five flowers. Prior to sketching we talked about the life cycle of a flower and acted out a happy sunflower, as well as a sleeping sunflower and they decided they can look differently. The finishing touches included adding sunflower seeds using a "sandwich" technique: glue, sunflower seeds, glaze coating.