2nd Grade Rainsticks!

Second graders have spent a couple of weeks now (I see them every day)  on art of Central and South America.  Here, we learned about the Chilean Rainsticks that the Aztecs used to "summon the rain."  Students constructed rainsticks out of paper towel holders.  They put tin foil inside the paper towel roll to slow the flow of the beads inside. This  mimics the cacti needles that are punctured into the authentic rainsticks.   I let them "have at it" with all of my craft stuff.  They loved it!!!

Kindergarten Playgrounds

I try to choose process driven activities for kindergarten that afford lots of choice and problem solving.  This is when are kiddos are so creative and we cannot hinder that by forcing them to create pre-fabricated projects.  Here, they manipulated paper to make their own playgrounds.  

Normally, I wouldn't use print-out people for them to color, but it was a last minute request from a few  students, so i thought, why not? The objective of the lesson was to manipulate paper to make it stand up, not draw people.  That's for another day!

Who We Are: Leaders in Art

Our 3rd graders just finished their Leaders in Art unit.  One of the artists we studied was Alexander Calder.  Here, we made mobiles inspired by this artist.  So much problem solving involved!  Students enjoyed making their paper sculptures for the mobile!  They are begging to take these home but they look so charming in my classroom!