Weaving (the elephant in the room--literally)

It's a bit embarrassing that I haven't posted these yet, as these projects have been dangling from the walls for quite awhile now. They've even been featured on our school news channel. But not on this blog--fail.

Once upon a time, my first graders made colorful 9x12" weavings on which they traced the shape of an elephant, a la Elmer the Patchwork Elephant. (I saw the Elmer idea on Pinterest, from here.)

We went through a whole spiel to fold, draw, and cut the proper lines on the 9x12" paper to get the warp.

Then the over/under games began!

For some unknown reason, I kept referring to their strips of paper as 'chicken strips' all throughout this project. Then I got really hungry and one Friday night sent my husband to the grocery store for chicken strips. I felt better after that.

The kiddos traced Elmer patterns that I made but had to add the eye and ear on their own. I adore the individual results--from eyelashes to bug eyes, floppy ears to teeny tiny people ears!

The kiddos loved their Elmers and I was pleased with this quickie result. I have a weaving phobia, people. I don't know where it came from, and I imagine that the cure might be just doing it for cryin' outloud, but alas, here we are. I have yet to pull out the surplus of yarn that lurks in the boxes stacked atop my cabinets (maybe because the janitor once found a bat living up there? eeek!), and show my darlings the (supposed) joy of the loom. I suppose I could blame the curriculum--beyond paper weaving with the little kiddos, it's not a requirement. Adding a pachyderm into the weaving equation makes this much more interesting, if you ask me.

So go ahead and judge my lack of bravery on the yarn weaving end of things. Maybe a little judgment is what I need to get my bootie into gear! And now, two questions for you:

1. When weaving with paper, do you pre-cut your warp (or 'looms') for the kiddos, or have them do it themselves?

2. Second, do you allow students to glue down their imperfections or prefer to try to fix all wrong turns? 'Cause I'm undecided--sometimes I act as the paper weaving police, while other times I enjoy the quirkiness of a misplaced paper strip.

Kandinsky-inspired trees

Let's get right back into the swing of things, shall we?

I love this project! Probably because I have a thing for trees. Our downstairs bathroom is decorated with trees, a collection inspired by one of my aunts, whose tree collection is museum-worthy, boasting pieces from all over the globe. So when I saw this Kandinsky-inspired tree project, I knew we had to try it!

I showed my third graders images of Kandinsky's paintings, focusing on the Circles series.

I demonstrated the process of cutting a square, paring it down into a circle, gluing it onto another color, cutting around the previous circle... repeat, repeat, repeat.

Each 'target' had to have at least three circles and colors but could be bigger and more colorful if desired.

 

 

Some students rocked it!

Some didn't.

On the second day, more circles were cut, as were trees with branches. The kids had the option to either use their hand as a tree-ish template...

... or to fold their paper in half and cut a symmetrical tree.

Everything was mounted onto the color of each artist's choice. Gorgeous! I might steal one for my tree bathroom.

Pencils were used to write names on the back--the only time pencils were used the entire project. Some stinkers did try to sneak a writing utensil so they could draw their circles before cutting them, but Officer Connell cracked down on that criminal activity stat!

Side note. Sometimes I am shocked (and embarrassed!) by the lack of basic skills of my students--in particular, gluing and cutting. I attribute this to a few things. We have no art class at the kindergarten level. This saddens me, especially considering the many times the kindergarten teachers have shared that new curricula prevent them from doing the artsy/crafty things they used to do with their little ones. And I think that this "we don't have time to do arts and crafts because we have to get our kids ready for the tests" mentality is pervasive throughout the elementary grades. So onto the art teacher goes the burden of Glue Bottles 101 and Scissors for Beginners... and then reviewing that same information every year. All that to say that I might bump this project down to a younger grade next year, as it was good for workin' those scissors in a circular motion.

Does anyone else see this lack of basic skills? For the veteran teachers, have you seen a decline in basic skills in the past few years?