Family Tree

I found this activity on Pinterest and I thought it would be a great art activity that could also be integrated with social studies.  After talking about families students could each take a paper hand home and have each family member decorate their hand.  The hands would then be returned and turned into a small family tree to represent the student's family.  This could also be used as a bulletin board where the main tree is composed of the hands of each student in the class and then the student's family trees are placed around the big tree.  

http://pinterest.com/pin/215328425906180659/

Showtime!!

Tonight was our talent show for art class.  We each had to perform or display something we are talented at.  Did you know that our class is a pretty talented bunch?  We have people that can sing, draw, sew, and cook. We also learned how to defend ourselves against an attacker!! Thanks Jackie :)

Tonight our groups also performed a skit we created from each of the stories we read.  The groups really did a great job!  Some of my classmates may have a career in acting if the teaching gig does not pan out! :)

Here are some of the pics:

Tiger Rising

Stone Fox

JT

Pictures of Hollis Woods

Today we discussed the book pictures of hollis woods by Patricia Reilly Giff.  This book is about a young girl that has been shuffled in and out of many different homes in the short time she has been alive.  Throughout the story Hollis draws pictures to capture specific moments in her life. Some of the themes of this book are need, power of art, family, belonging, compassion, desires, and memories. I really enjoyed reading this story and I think it could be a great story to share with students.

Decades Project (Part II)

All the research is done....let the fun begin!  

 I think all groups did a great job representing each decade:)

The Roaring 20's:

The Fabulous 40's (My group)

The 1950's:

The 1960's:

The 1970's:

PHOTO BOOTH

Blog Links

I have included some blogs that had some interesting ideas for integrating art into the classroom!

http://suffieldart.blogspot.com

http://elementaryartroom.blogspot.com

http://elementaryartfun.blogspot.com

http://elementary-art-rocks.blogspot.com

http://applesloveorangespdx.blogspot.com

http://apexelementaryart.blogspot.com

Decades Project (Part 1)

For the Decades Project, our class was divided into five groups of four people and given a decade to research.  Each group was to create a poster and find artifacts representing our specific time period that would then be presented to everyone who dared enter the student lounge in Greenlawn hall on April 10.  My group chose the 1940's to research.

I was really excited to begin researching this time period because my grandma was born in the 1940's and my great grandfather was a pilot in WWII.  I spent an afternoon at my grandmother's house and I am very glad I did...she knew so much about that time period!  Along with all the information she had to share, she also supplied me with some authentic artifacts from that time period.

Here are some of the items used by my great grandfather while in the service during WWII: 

 SOME OTHER IMPORTANT BITS FROM THE 40's.....

 Did you know that Legos first appeared in the 1940's?

 These are aprons from the 40's made from feed sacks:

 Walt Disney became popular in the 40's with Pinocchio and Dumbo as his first movies:

Coke was also trademarked in the 1940's

Stay tuned for pics of the BIG DAY!

Blog Links

Here are some links to blogs that had some creative ways of teaching Social Studies concepts:

http://historytech.wordpress.com
http://3gradethoughts.com
http://melissa-wade.blogspot.com
http://missklohnsclassroom.blogspot.com
http://joyin6th.blogspot.com
http://mrsjumpsclass.blogspot.com
http://adventuresoffirstgrade.blogspot.com
http://finallyinfirst.blogspot.com
http://teacherideafactory.blogspot.com

A Play in the Making

For Arts class our groups each chose a story to read and then we are acting out a scene from the story. My group read the book Morning Girl by Michael Dorris.  The scene we chose to act out is when one of the characters, Star Boy, gets himself stuck in a storm and he clings to a tree for safety.

We decided to create a tree as part of our scenery for the play.  We started with a piece of cardboard, brown paint, green poster board, and green paper. Here are some pictures of the process.

5 Themes of Geography

In class we have been talking about the 5 themes of geography and how we can incorporate these themes into the classroom when teaching students.  Our project was to create a Powerpoint about a specific location that incorporated the 5 themes of geography.  I chose Australia as my location and below are some of the pictures that used for each theme.

Location:

Place:

                               

Human-Environment Interaction

Movement

              

Regions

**All images from google images

Salt Dough Maps

To further our discussion on geography, today we made salt dough maps of a state or country that we were interested in learning more about.   To begin I pre-made salt dough using 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt and gradually added water until the dough was thick but not wet.

I then found a topographical map of Italy on the internet which I printed and cut out.  I rolled out my dough on a piece of cardboard and laid the cut out map on top of the dough and traced the outline with a toothpick.  I removed the excess dough and set it aside.  Next, I removed the map from the salt dough and used excess dough to create the mountains of Italy.  Then I used green, blue, brown, and black paint to color my map to show the mountains, land, and water throughout the country.

Here is my map of Italy:

I used toothpicks and note cards to pinpoint some of the major cities in Italy.  

Here are some of the maps created by my classmates:

I think salt dough maps are a great way for students to be hands on with their learning.  I would use this activity in my classroom and allow students to choose their country or state within the parameters of what we are learning about.  This project is a great way to integrate Social Studies and Art.