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.

Later, gator!

The second graders are makin' gators!

I saw this cool project over on Dali's Moustache awhile back (Dali's Moustache notes that the original idea came from a Flickr account via Pinterest). Blogger Ren did it with her first graders; I opted to try it with the second grade crew, though I may use it for first grade in the future. (Confession: I have a little bit of weaving phobia, especially with first graders.)

We spent the first day making a 6x9" sheet of sgraffito using greens and blues. It was a good review of painting procedures and parts of the paintbrush, and the kids LOVED the sgraffito effect... mmkay, I love it, too!

Look at that precious face. I live for those moments.

Any early finishers worked on a practice weaving to review the over/under; some of them remembered from first grade and others did not, so they helped each other, which I loved watching. :-)

When the sheets were dry, I chopped 'em up into 6x1" strips and deposited them into students' envelopes (which we use throughout the year when we have pieces likely to go MIA). On the second day, the little ones weaved and then began tracing feet, a head, and a tail. Body parts everywhere! (How appropriately Halloween!)

On the third day (it feels like I'm writing the book of Genesis over here), bodies were completely assembled, wiggle eyes were added, and teeth were added if desired. (Teeth are optional in rural Pennsylvania... hahaha just kidding, PA. I love you.) Then, kiddos used precious gold paint to decorate the non-sgraffito parts of their glorious gators.

Hahaha... I love my job.

This little fella is decorating his gator with Korean writing!

This is probably the most any of the kids' projects have looked alike--I try to avoid 'cookie cutter' projects at all costs. (I do think that kind of assignment has its place--my room just isn't that place.) With the sgraffito, the choice of green paper, and the painting, they look individualized enough for me; when I do it again, I may give more options for painting, including some other metallics, like Ren had done.

The kids reviewed their weaving and learned something new, and they love their lil' gators!

This gator has an afro!

That's some bite you have there...

Gangsta gator with a gold grill!

This gator put her mascara on this morning...

Update: As soon as I put the gators in the hallway, I got a plethora of comments. Unfortunately, some of them were "those are great turtles" and "I love those fish." FAIL. I remedied the confusion with a large and overcompensating sign, "2ND GRADERS' GATORS." Next time, I think I'll require teeth, and make the bodies longer and more narrow. You live, you learn. Till then, I think our gator/turtle/fish creatures are pretty cool.