Monday, October 26, 2015

1st-Owls

1st Grade: Owls

First graders studied primary and secondary colors. They reviewed red + yellow =orange! We also talked about shape and line. 
Students had a chance to practice line, shape and color in this awesome project!
We did a step by step first of drawing a large owl on 12 x 18 blue paper. Students used black oil pastel to draw. We also drew the branch and leaves. 
Then, students added color with red chalk first (inner contour). Then, yellow was added, making the orange in between. Ears, wings and feet could be any warm colored chalk pastel. I encouraged orange colored beaks. Students used white chalk for the eye. Then, black oil pastel was added for the inner circle. This was tricky for students, as they wanted to do the black first, but I gave lots of reminders for the white first. 
Students created "feathers" with curvy line with black oil pastel. They added stars/moon with white oil pastel. I think this was a great project for listening skills/understanding/following directions. Also reviewed secondary color, line, shape. A great way to begin first grade! I did laminate all of these!

Amazing owls first grade!

2nd-Quetzal Birds

2nd Grade: Quetzal Birds

2nd graders learned about Quetzal birds for their first project of the year. Quetzals are beautiful birds found in Mexico and Central America. In fact, it is the national bird of Guatemala. It is on their currency. The name "quetzal" means "large brilliant tail feather". Quetzals have red bellies with green feathers. They can be up to 13 inches long! We looked at some photographs of rather magnificent quetzals. We also explored birdcages. Quetzals are wild birds, so the quetzal birds students created were placed outside the cage. Birdcages can be many different shapes. Some are simple and some are complex. 
For this project, I had a number of different shaped birdcages on posters for students to refer to. I also did a step by step of a few of the birdcages. Students drew the cage in pencil, traced in sharpie, and added features and details. Cages had to have a door and a hook. It could also have patterns and "feet". 
I also did a step by step of drawing a quetzal bird. These were drawn on 8 x 11 white cardstock. The card was folded in half. On the left half, students drew the head and body. On the right half, students drew the long tail feather. I did a number of step by step examples to show the many different ways a tail feather could be represented. Students traced the bird with sharpie and added color with oil pastels. Last step, was to cut out the birds and glue them to the cage.

I used the ideas for this fabulous project from:




I think these came out so wonderful!