Room 5 is "Under the Sea"

Still stuck on colored paper making art projects (since we had SO MUCH FUN with the Kinders with it) I started a series in the 1st Grades.
And boy-oh-boy, what fun we have!

Our 1st Grades are working on habitats right now and every class has a different habitat they "investigate".

Room 5 is discovering the ocean and when I saw Eric Carle's "Mister Seahorse" I had found our new project.

First the kids made two sets of colored paper using the same techniques the Kinders did.
Then they also made one colored paper using liquid water color which served as the background for our mystery animal.

After we finished the first session (paper making) I left the kids with clues as to what kind of animal it could be. Then they were on their own for one week to figure out what it could be.

Today I marched in, revealed the mystery animal (Mr. Seahorse) and we completed the session.
The kids traced the seahorse onto one of their sheets of colored paper, cut and pasted it onto the background sheet and then used the other colored paper to add decorations to their creations.
We added some sparkles, eyes, some got a crown or a octopus friend, others got more seaweed to hide in.

At the end of the session we took a tour through the "Milpitas Seahorse Exhibit".
Every child introduced their seahorse and told us a bit about it (most of their seahorses love to eat gummy bears and popcorn, one was a super hero seahorse and all of them were very well behaved :).

I really love adding these art presentations by the kids after we complete a project.
It helps them practice public speaking.
Some of the kids are so shy and just whisper into my ear and others have a whole lot to tell about their art piece.
It also gives them a chance to share their thoughts behind their art work.
Everybody earns a big round of applause and walks away with a big smile (and secretly very proud too).

So please come with me and take a look at our 

Underwater-World of Room 5

GREAT WORK Room 5!!!

After all that talk about oceans, seahorses, moving around like crabs and pretend swimming like sharks I know you are all experts when it comes to the ocean and it's many inhabitants.

As always, it was a PLEASURE visiting you guys.
I hope I can come by one more time before you guys become 2nd Graders!

Underwater-Art-Attack ... successfully completed!

This art project was inspired by yet another Deep Space Sparkle session.

Room 3, Room 3, what do you see?

I see 33 Brown Bears looking at me!

This completes our Eric Carle Kinder sessions.
Room 3 had chosen "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" out of the series and has some absolutely stunning, big, brown and awesomely creative bears to show off now.

Again the kids had made "colored paper" as in the previous sessions/rooms and then traced and cut out their bear bodies, legs and head.
All body parts were pasted onto a green or blue background and then important details like eyes, ears, toe nails and bows were added with black oil pastel.

After the kids had finished their work I told them to go wash up and get ready for a field trip to a special zoo.

All of them were SOOO excited and were talking about "what zoo?" and "if we'd go on a bus" and so on.

I had them all line up, hands behind the back (so the animals could not bite them  ... or the better so they would not touch the still drying art pieces) and took them to a VERY SPECIAL Brown Bear exhibit, right in their class room.

They had so much fun and whenever we walked to a new table we gave it a special name like "the soccer bear exhibit".

This  is was a great way for the kids to see all the wonderful creations and everybody got a big round of applause from their co-artists. 

So please enjoy the tour through the "Brown Bear" exhibit at Curtner Elementary Zoo ;)

I LOVE the little guy below.
He totally looks like he is being chased by a swarm of bees after steeling their honey.

This guy looks like he is whistling a nice bear song ;)

And he is REALY running ;)

He looks just so happy.

I love this fella. You really can see the texture and the design in the paper.

Proud as could be!

I love how some of the body parts are a wee bit out of place.
This is true Kindergarden work!
This was all about the process of making the paper, tracing and cutting and NOT about creating the PERFECT bear.

Each and every example is perfect in its own way.
Just PERFECT!

Excellent work Room3!

Room 3 is "Where The Wild Things Are"!
I LOVE these kiddos, they are so happy and excited.
And they give the BEST group hugs EVER.
You haven't lived life until you have been hugged by 33 five year olds ... all at the same time!

I can not wait to watch all these Kinder kids become 1st Graders.
First Grade teachers get ready for an AWESOME group of little people!

Bear Art Attack on Room 3 was VERY sucessful!

Room 1, Room 1, what do you hear?

I hear 33 Polar Bears roaring with no fear!

Room 1 had chosen the Polar Bears out of the Eric Carle series and ended up with quite an awesome line up of fearsome and cute Polar Bears, with the help of the awesome Polar Bear Tamer Mrs. Lutex :)

They also had made colored paper with blue and white for the background and used plain white paper (they added some texture by adding thicker white paint to the white paper) for the Polar Bears.
Today they traced the bears onto the white paper and then added faces and a few hairs here and there for a more "furry"effect.
A lot of the kids added a scarf, shoes or a bow to their Polar Bears which really was a great idea since it added a splash of color to the masterpiece.

See for yourself!

Love this VERY furry guy :)

Hayden gave her bear a VERY pretty scarf.

These guys were lucky and even got shoes.

LOVE this designer scarf!!!

These Polar Bears are very COOL ... of course they have to be, they live on the North Pool :)

GREAT JOB Room 1!
Fantastic examples of this fluffy, white species.

Polar Bear attack on Room 1 was a COOL affair :)