Yet another wonderful idea from Deep Space Sparkle! My 2nd and 3rd graders first chose whether they wanted a warm or a cool sky. We went over again what exactly this meant. After decoupaging the ripped tissue sky onto our 11X14 posterboard, they cut birch tree shapes out of white card stock. They were encouraged to vary the lengths and the widths to give the winter forest some dimension. Shadows and details were added and then the trees glued to the background. Lastly they painted diagnal shadows cast from the trees and optionally some growth from the snow. I think the results are so striking. 
These beautiful trees were created using only primary colors, "double dipping" their brushes to create trees in green, orange and purple. I love how this project was a lesson in color mixing for my Pre K's - 1st Graders, as well as a quick lesson in Impressionism. I brought out the book,"Lydia in Monet's Garden" to show some examples of the strong display of brush strokes.
My "go to" blog, Deep Space Sparkle prompted this project for Kinders and 1st graders. The background started with crayon drawings of sun and hills, followed by watercolor sky and earth. I provided templates for hat, shirt and pants and allowed them to use scrapbook paper, construction paper and leftover painted paper. Finishing touches were buttons, patches, rafia for the straw and precut crows. What a cute project for fall!
I have a group of Pre-K and Kindergarten students this fall. I realized very quickly just how varied their abilities can be in terms of fine motor control at this age. So I needed a project that wouldn't bore my students who were a little more on the advanced spectrum while not frustrating those at the other end. I had the children trace over my simple pencil drawing of the peacock feathers shape. They then painted the whole space blue, then added green and dark blue strips. For the beautiful "eyes" of the feathers, we used cotton balls, thumb prints, finger prints, and then Q-tip prints. They glued a pre-cut body down and added an eye.
I think the results were wonderful for everyone!
