BRUSH OF THE GODS and Chinese Calligraphy

BRUSH OF THE GODS, by Lenore Look, is one of those books that entrances older students. By the last pages they are holding their breath to see what happens.

I buy special bamboo brushes for this project, and remind students how to take good care of them. The first day, after reading the book, students practice Chinese characters on a plain sheet of copy paper folded into fourths using the bamboo brushes and black tempera cakes. I play traditional Chinese music while they work. A great resource for learning and sharing Chinese characters is my friend Andrea's website: https://chineseiscool.com/

The second day they continued to experiment with the brushes by painting other subjects such as bamboo, pandas, and dragons!

THE SHAPE OF MY HEART Valentine's Mobiles

Kinder and 1st grade students decorated these sweet streamers after reading THE SHAPE OF MY HEART. I copied heart templates on colored copy paper to make it an easy one day project. They were excited to use these to decorate their classrooms for Valentine's Day.

Older students, in 3rd-5th grade, learned to make a simple one string mobile using 6 x 6" construction paper squares and yarn. They folded two pieces of paper together and cut a heart on the fold. I also showed them how to cut "heart rings" and increasingly smaller hearts to use on their mobiles. They simply glued them "like a sandwich" on either side of the yarn. They made every variety of mobile, from large to small, and some student experimented with other symmetrical shapes.

YOU BE YOU Collaborative Mural

I started the year by reading this book to all classes. Thanks to my parent volunteer's help we made this awesome collaborative mural. Students loved adding their fish and other underwater details to our ocean.

THE RAINBOW BOOK & Rainbow Mosaic Collage

This was the second rainbow project I did with Kindergarten to reinforce the order of a rainbow. Reading THE RAINBOW BOOK also gave us chance to talk about the way colors can relate to feelings.

After a demonstration on the document camera students began by folding, drawing and cutting a heart for the center of their collage. I always ask students to check with me before cutting since hearts can be tricky! Then, students used strips of paper from orange to purple to cut into different shapes for their mosaic. We reviewed rainbow order and also talked a bit about symmetry. I love the way each student interpreted this differently, but all the variations were beautiful and successful. I'm publishing these on ARTSONIA as my Mother's Day fundraiser.

NOT A STICK

We did this project as part of our Kindergarten unit on line. The first day we read NOT A STICK, which they loved, and talked about using our imaginations. Students glued popsicle sticks to a plain black paper after creating a composition they were happy with.

The next day, after they had dried, they painted using flourescent tempera cakes.

TOO MUCH GLUE

I love reading this book the first time we use glue in Kindergarten since it's fun to see what NOT to do! Since we begin by studying line I give them an assortment of paper strips to make a collage. Rather than use scissors I encourage them to tear the paper to make it smaller. It's also a good way for them to develop fine motor strength. For glue I use spill-proof cups and cheap plastic brushes. These are SO much easier to refill, and they never get clogged the way glue bottles do. Plus using brushes prevents puddles and putting TOO MUCH GLUE on their paper ; )