1st Grade Day of the Dead Skeletons

Have I mentioned that my 1st graders are a VERY difficult group this year?  That being said, I had meant for this project to be completed last week so they could be hanging before November 1st and 2nd, however that didn't happen.  We spent the majority of two class periods before this with our heads down, practicing being quiet.  I have 24 seats in my classroom and one first grade class with 24, and one with 25 students!  

Either way, the first class has finished the project and the second will finish theirs on Monday this up-coming week.  This project came directly from Pinterest.  What is great is that the timing of Dia de los Muertos lined up perfectly with the 1st grade NYS Common Core Listening and Learning Strand about the human body.  In that strand, the students learn about the muscular system, the nervous system, and the skeletal system.

I brought down this model skeleton from the health room, which the students loved!  He was, however, covered up with a sheet most of the time (which sort of made him more creepy...but otherwise he was too much of a distraction to all of the other classes!).  

I had intended that this project would only take us 1 1/2 days to complete...but it actually ended up taking 2 1/2 days due to student behavior.  After we finished up our pumpkin patch drawings, we took 10 minutes at the end of class to view a power point about the Day of the Dead (that was the half day).  On the second day, I had intended that the students would quickly review the primary and secondary colors (since I had covered them so extensively in kindergarten), and take 10 minutes to paint their cardboard.  I was planning on going over the skeletal system with them and then building the skeletons on the cardboard that day.  Unfortunately, that didn't happen.  It took us an ENTIRE period to paint a little 5"x7" piece of cardboard and to clean up.  

So, I ended up having to take one day to paint the background and one day to make the skeletons.  Since I'm getting so close to my maternity leave, I wanted to make sure these got done so they could be graded by our 10 week marking period next week.  I had intended to take one more day to make the flowers but either way, we were able to make the skeletons and flowers in one class period.

We also didn't get a chance to mod podge these like in the original post from Pinterest, so I'll probably just spray them with some glossy fixative spray before I hang them. 

These are the seven elements on my rubric for this project:

1.       Skeleton Bones (shows all major bones: skull, spine, ribs, pelvis, collar bone, arms, legs & joints)

2.       Background (painted background one secondary color using two primaries)

3.       Marigolds (built marigolds to fill in the negative space around skeleton)

4.       Used Creativity (positioned skeleton in an interesting way)

5.       Used Good Craftsmanship (Neatly glued all pieces to cardboard.)

6.       Has a Good Composition (Used entire piece of cardboard.)

7.       Used Time Wisely (Didn’t rush artwork; didn’t waste time)

YAM 1st Grade: Monet's Pond

One of the first grade teachers borrowed Claude Monet: Sunshine and Waterlilies to read to her class.  In that particular book, there is a recipe for scones, which were one of Monet's favorite foods.  So, for her activity, they went to the old home ec. room and made scones!  Here is my connecting activity:

We are making Monet's pond using various mixed media techniques.  On day one, students painted the bottom side of a tray with blue and white acrylic paint to make it look like water.

On day two, I had them cover a half piece of tag board with acrylic gel and tissue paper.  These will become the lily pads.

On day three, students will draw some lily pads on the back of the tissue paper collage.  We'll cut these out and glue them to our pond.

Then, on the same day, we'll add some crumpled tissue paper flowers.  I thought about doing regular, folded tissue paper flowers, but I'm not sure 1st graders would be able to work with something that needs to be precise and small.

For the final day, day 4, of our project, we will make these model magic frogs to glue to our last lily pad!  I brought some Model Magic home with me this weekend to play around with it a bit.  I've sure you may have seen various posts on Pinterest about these frogs, such as this one.  That's what we will make, but I want them to add a silly frog tongue to them as well!

My first year of teaching I did these acrylic Monet paintings on cardboard with 1st graders as well...

5th Grade Checkerboards Continued!

Class A has now finished their checkerboard pieces (aside from the few absentees) and Class B started theirs today.  I made a last minute executive decision to have Class B use Model Magic instead of the regular clay.  The second set of checker pieces made by Class A started getting bigger and bigger...and I'm afraid some may blow in the kiln!  (They are taking FOREVER to dry...I had them sitting out overnight, not in a bag, and most of them are still cold and clammy on the outside still!)

Model Magic seems to be doing just as good as the clay...I showed the students some tricks with scissors to cut the foam clay and they are using tooth picks to "carve" and add holes/dimples, etc.  This group was also a little more creative with their pieces (though I have come to accept that Class A is the "quick-let's-get-it-done" group and Class B is the more creative group). 

The Model Magic pieces are also a little easier to keep track of...I gave each student a paper plate to write their name on and they have all their pieces on a paper plate.  

Hopefully I'll be able to fire the kiln on Friday this week...it'll be a long, slow firing for the checkerboards and checker pieces!