Spring Animals

     My new technique has been going pretty well so far. I am getting some push back from a few students in each grade, but keep reminding them that TAB wasn't working for us for several reasons; behavior, waste, and cleanliness being the biggest. I recently began a lesson with second grade that is going pretty well so far. I found an image online of a cute little bunny in a patch of flowers and followed the links to Mrs. Filmore's blog. The link there is a different post about the same project, but the post I saw only had a bunny or a bear as options. I loved the project, but not the fact that these students used a printed version of the animal and just added texture lines, cut it out and glued it down. So I used the idea but modified it for my classroom.

 
   I made three videos-one for the background, one for the bunny, and one for the bear. I then told my students that they could modify one of those animals to create a different animal if they'd like. I used the examples of modifying the bunny into a squirrel by changing the shape and size of the ears or making the bear into a cat by changing the shape of the nose and ears and adding whiskers. Well, the kids got a bit carried away in my first class and started wanting to make things like lizards and spiders so I had to change how I was saying it to be "any furry animal that might live or hide in a garden." It still backfired a little, and I do have a bee and a bird being worked on as I couldn't talk them out of it. If I do this again, I guess I'll have to say any furry mammal that may live or hide in a garden!

   First the students were shown the beginning of this presentation and the background video so that they all knew how to do the background.

   Then I told the students that when I say the magic word (it was pineapple) they would split into two groups. If they wanted to create or modify the bunny they'd sit by the SmartBoard and if they wanted to create or modify the bear they'd sit at one of the other two tables. On the way to the bunny table they were to pick up a piece of 9X12 white construction paper, a pencil, and an eraser. On the way to the other tables they were to pick up a piece of 9X12 watercolor paper and a marker block. The kids who wanted to do the bear would start the bear the next class and work on the garden the first class while the bunny group worked with me and the video to draw their bunnies with pencil.

   We had just enough time to get that done in our 35 minute class period. Then next class, regardless of where they left off students switched groups. If they were working on their garden last class they met by the SmartBoard to make their bear and if they were drawing their bunny they started their garden. 

  Again, just BEARly enough time to get that done in 35 minutes. Next class all the students will be shown the Sharpie step and start working on that. They will also have the option of finishing their garden. The fourth class period they will cut out their animal and glue it to the background and mount the artwork on a colored border paper. They will then use iPads to upload their finished spring animal to our Artsonia gallery.