Making a 3D city

I've attached a LOT of pictures to this post. Instead of writing a few long paragraphs about what we did during this project, I'm going to add captions to explain our process.

One of my all-time favorite books!! We talked about what an architect is and I explained that we would be pretending we are architects during the next weeks. We had a discussion about the types of buildings we see in our communities. They chose a building type they would want to design and then completed research to find out more about their building category.

Kindergarten research papers complete, along with preliminary sketches.

Next, we attempted to build our building out of blocks.

So cool!

I photographed each of their buildings to use for reference later.

Now we used the photographs for observational drawing. I wanted them to eliminate the background so they could focus on the building only. This was a great opportunity to talk about background, foreground and subject. They took black Sharpies and "blacked out" the entire background.

They carefully studied their building photographs and replicated what they saw in their photo.

Good stuff!!

Now we start to use what we previously learned to make our drawings 3d! They painstakingly traced their drawing first in red, then we moved the paper slightly, then they traced it again in blue. We are on our way to special effects!!

I love!!!!

 

Tracing is complete- let's add color! At this point they wore their glasses off and on, checking to make sure their drawing was giving them the 3d effect they desired. I loved the process of continuously checking.

I know you can't see it online but, with 3d glasses on, this looks like it is really popping out at you!

Fraction Pillows (1st-5th)

Whew- we are wrapping up spring break and I realize that I haven't posted about projects we made back in November......

Luckily I already wrote up a description of this project for our S.M.A.T.H. night where these fraction pillows were displayed so I'm just going to cut and paste ;).

Art and math intersect almost continuously although it usually goes unnoticed. For this project we focused on quilting and emphasized how much quilting involves using fractions to build a quilt design. The hope is for the students to independently see math concepts in much of the art that they make.

First we reviewed or were introduced to fractions based on their grade level standards. We completed worksheets for practice before we worked with the fabric. Next we collected our fabric and planned our quilt design on a template. Some grades were given a fraction and had to create their design around that fraction. Other grades created their design first and then worked with the fractions within their design when it was complete. Finally, we adhered their fabric down to our quilt square and then stuffed our pillows!

Back to school- portfolio time!

 

 

 

I can't believe that we are going into the fifth week of school already!!!

 

We rolled out the year with our usual portfolio making. I remind the kids to tell me all about themselves with their drawing on their portfolios. It's pretty cute to see what they are interested in outside of school. It's really nice because I learn so much about some of my quieter kids that I normally don't have the opportunity to find out about them- like if they enjoy their dance class or playing lacrosse or cooking with their mom.

 

My partner, Mrs. Slats, built incredible storage for the portfolios this year made out of pallets. She stained and painted them to match our walls and covered the top with fabric so we have even more workspace at the front of the room. Each class has a section just for their portfolios. This is a big upgrade from the plastic bins I stuffed them in the past years ;). Heaven!!

 

Here are some photos of the kids working.

 

 

Some of the completed Comic Strips