Doodle Book Cover

I make each of my kids a doodle book.  I bind together this Doodle Book Cover, the idea page, a whole lot of white paper, and voila!  The kids love to doodle, and I love that they are using those little hand muscles while getting those creative juices flowing.

Mask Masking

The end of the school year means paper mache mask making.  

What a job. . .but the results always make me smile.

Step 1:  Tape a balloon to a large can.

Step 2:  Begin painting on the newspaper strips (1" x 6") with 1 part water/1 part Elmer's glue

Step 3:  Repeat step 2, 4-5 times.  Alternate newsprint with white paper so that the kids can easily tell which areas have been recovered.  This eliminates weak spots.

We use wadded up newspaper, paper cups, poster board, and a whole lot of masking tape to form the masks.  Each child chooses the animal they want to create and then parents & I help them form their masks.  

Some parents are quite talented!

And then come the smocks & acrylic paint. . .

Voila!!!!

This project is QUITE the project for first graders and every year, mid-project, I wonder what I was thinking.  But once the masks are complete, I know that I must do them again next year.  

Giraffe Art

I saw this project on Mrs. Brouwer's Art Blog and had to give it a try.  

love . love . love

Pattern Block Plants

This quick project is an annual favorite.  After learning about plants and identifying plant parts, I give each child a photo of a plant.  Their job is to use paper pattern block pieces to recreate an image of their plant, then label the flower, stem, leaves, and roots.  Beautiful!

Doodle Poster

I am a huge fan of first grade doodling.  So good for their little hands and brains.  A friend shared the idea of a doodling poster and I knew we needed one of our own.  I collected my kids' doodles and a parent scanned them and created this class poster for us.  Isn't it gorgeous?  And so easy!  It is my newest treasure.
Pretty sure I will be making a doodle poster with a new quote each year.  

Monochromatic Self Portraits

Each student at our school created a monochromatic self portrait.  

Our hallways are gorgeous!

Autobiography Art

Our genre focus in February was biographies.  In addition to writing their autobiographies, the kids made these self potraits.   I had a parent trace their sillouettes and then the kids used magazines to cut out pictures and words representative of their lives.  Check out a few other examples under the Art Gallery tab.