3rd Grade Aboriginal Animals

As I find myself with a TINY bit of extra time, I'm going to put up another post from a project that has been done for quite a while. I found that I had so many projects that were finished at about the same time that this one has had to wait its turn to be displayed in the hallways. I like to photograph some of the best examples once I have hung the work and can see everything. 

This is a tried and true project that my students really enjoy. I've done it a few years in a row, so it might be just about time to try something new next year. I think most of us have a limit for how many times we can repeat a project before we get anxious to try something new. 

The big key to this project for me is having my students draw (and color with oil pastel) their animal on one sheet of paper that is later glued onto the background with the dots. I feel as if I have a pretty high success rate doing it this way. Enjoy the examples!

Check out my lesson plan!

Student Teacher Projects

You caught me. I haven't been updating as much as I should be. Here is my lame attempt at an excuse. Over the last several weeks, I have been busy volunteering to help with our school's new running club two days a week. We have 60 4th and 5th graders working on their distance running skills. It has been a great opportunity to get a little more exercise and connect with students outside of the classroom. We are building up to run the 4 mile "Flying Feather" race on Thanksgiving morning. 

I also haven't had many of my own projects to post lately due to the fact that I was working with a student teacher for seven weeks. I'm using this post to show off some of the projects that she did with my students. This is the second year in a row I've had a student teacher and I find that I enjoy it. It is a nice change of pace and it allows me to take a look at my own teaching practices. 

Op Art by 5th Grade - A colored background with a sheet of acetate over the top. The two pieces
are attached with a brad in order to allow the top to spin to create the optical illusion.

Origami Crane Mobile by 4th Grade - A beautiful multi-colored mobile.

Octopus/Chameleon Color Wheels by 3rd Grade - A watercolor picture that includes a color changing
animal. A separate color wheel was made and attached behind the cut out animals using a brad. The
color wheels could be spun to make it look like the animals were actually changing colors!

Multi-Media Fall Scene by 2nd Grade - A fall scene using oil pastel, watercolor, tempera, and chalk pastel.

Cave Art by 1st Grade - Oil pastel animals and tempera hand prints for this one.