Snowman Village

Here is a peek at the Snowman Village project.  I love the diversity of their villages.   I love providing a palette of choices.  In this project the children:

• embellished their houses with markers and watercolor paints
• painted the cardboard "earth" with snow
• created snow "people" out of white foam clay (pipecleaners and markers for details)
• pompoms, sticks and other elements were provided for fun

What I love about creating little villages and habitats is how much it captures the hearts and minds of the children.  It is a hushed room while these little universes are being created.

Afterwards, I like to have the children create a little story to go along with the village.  These villages hold the potential for many stories. . . 

Polar Bears in Snow

This was such a fun painting project.  I ordered the largest size construction paper (24 x 36) in pale blue.   This gave it the "wow" factor.  I love large paintings!  We drew the bears on the paper before painting.  I gave the children crayons.

Step One:  I had the children draw a half moon shape for the head of the bear. I told them to make it a big half circle.  We practiced with our finger "pencil" first on the paper.

Step Two: Next, we drew the ears of the bear - half circles or ovals.

Step Three:  Finally, we drew two dot eyes, an upside down triangle nose with a J shape coming down from the nose.  Then a backwards J to make the other side.

Paint the bear white first.  Let dry.

Paint the eyes and nose.  Let dry. 

 Paint the storm with a q-tip.  Done! 

TIP:  I taught the children to "dip, tap, paint."  Dip the brush into the paint, tap it against the side of the paint pot, and paint.  Otherwise - you will have drips all over your paintings! 

I created a little song that I will share later this week!

3-D Trees - The Four Seasons (Part 2)

This article continues a series on 3-D habitats and science topics. To learn how to make a brown bag tree, please refer to Part 1.

Today, I am going to share how I use these simple bag trees to construct the four seasons.  You can have the children each make their own seasonal tree or make a large class tree out of a grocery sack and create a seasonal setting.

FALL TREE:  I prefer to use tissue paper as it is easy to tear and glue.  You can also use construction paper.

Apply torn tissue paper with Elmer's glue.  A Q-tip works well.  I tell the children to "dot" the branch with glue and press the tissue paper into the dot.

It is fun to leave a few torn tissues laying at the bottom of the fall tree!

SPRING TREE:  I love to purchase tissue paper on clearance.  Here I found a great tissue paper at Target that I used for the Spring Tree.  Again, just tear it!

To add the spring gesture - add a few blossoms in the tree.  I love the glorious blossoms on trees in spring!

SUMMER TREE: I use dark green tissue paper for the full lush of summer!

WINTER TREE:  Make up a batch of snow paint and you have a wonderful winter tree!

(Snow Paint:  in a Dixie cup, squirt one shot of shaving cream, add a squeeze of glue, and a squeeze of white paint.  Be careful to not add too much glue and paint!  Keep it fluffy!  Apply with a popsicle stick!)

COMMON CORE STANDARDS
FOCUS:  Non-Fiction Books - Informational text such as 

Watching the Seasons (Welcome Books: Watching Nature) by Edana Eckart

Possible application:
Students read text about the four seasons and then create a 3-D representation of their understanding.  Additionally, after creating the seasonal tree, the students could write about the season.

• Speaking & Listening Standard: Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas  
• Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail.
• Language Art Standard: Vocabulary
• Identify real-life connections between words and their use (e.g., use of vocabulary to describe and identify seasons through trees).
• Writing Standard: Text Types and Purposes
• Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces in which they tell a reader the topic or the name of the book they are writing about and state an opinion or preference about the topic or book (e.g., My favorite season is . . .)

3-D Paper Habitats 101 - Part 1

There are three basic 3-dimensional techniques to have in your teaching toolbox.  These three habitat basics can be used to have children demonstrate their understandings of current science studies or character settings. Over the next week, I am going to share how to make these habitats.  On Friday I will cover how they can fulfill Common Core Standards.  Stay tuned for a rocking week!

Today I am going to show you how to make a basic paper bag tree.

 Begin with an open bag.  I glue it down on a paper plate for kindergarten.  Older grades will not need this support.

 Have the children cut half way down the bag to make the branches.  Tell the children to use their pinkies to measure how far apart to make the cuts.

 Next, twist the bottom of the bag to form the trunk.

 Twist each branch.  Older children can stop just before the end and cut the end into two more branches.

 Twist those two ends on each branch.

 Older grades, twist the bottom corners for roots.

 Glue to paper plate or other surface to begin creating habitat.  

Go ahead and grab a brown bag and try to make one!  If you have any questions - let me know because you will not want to miss tomorrow when I will show you how to make the four seasons with these trees!

Tuesday I will show you how to make animal habitats in these trees.  

Oh, how the possibilities are endless!!!!!