Winter Birds

Once a semester our school provides us (the teachers) with a two-hour early release.  Theis is for the teachers to grade or have work-time.  This means that we have an adjusted schedule.  So my hour classes are now 40 minutes.  I choose to go a little more crafty than usual with this sweet little winter bird project.  I was inspired by so many great blogs that it would be hard to pinpoint one that I could call as my inspiration.  Here is how I taught the kids.

Day 1: I set up the trays with a 2 cardboard squares, two Q-tips, green paint in a sponge and a small container of brown to share between two students.  I had this ready for the kids to make sure they had the whole shortened class period to work. I demoed the branch painting with the brown paint and Q-tips as well as printing the green paint with the cardboard square.

Day 2: I showed some pictures of winter birds.  I told them it was a cardinal challenge.  They each got a red, orange, and black sheet of paper.  They could use scissors or rip paper. Students used glue sponges to secure the birds onto the background. 

Students visited a paint station to add the snow and eyes with white paint.  Again we are using Q-tips.  It worked well. I asked students to leave the eyes white and I placed black dots in the eyes after they were dry and before I gave the artwork back to the teachers to display.

We did this project with two classes (2nd grade and 1st grade) in the same day.  Becuase of this I used two different shaped paper and colors.  This helped me keep the classes separate.