Fraction Art!

My first grader is working on fractions at school. This morning we were inspired to do a bit of fraction art. He started with circles and cut them into halves and then quarters.....

A Wordless Book

My son found a wonderful wordless book at the library last week called Journey and we have fallen in love with it! We have looked at it several times in the last week and each time we spend at least a half hour discussing what we see. The illustrations tell a beautiful story of an imaginative journey. The ending will leave you wanting to create your own story through illustrations.....

Fuzzy Little Birds

We are talking a lot about Spring and focusing on birds yet. My little one has also been interested in the basket of wool and yarn that we have sitting out and how it all comes together lately. Today we read the books Knitty Kitty and Woolbur for inspiration and help to understand how wool becomes yarn through illustrations. Then we took some of the wool we had in the basket and felted it into egg shapes. This was so fun to play in the warm soapy water. After they dried just a bit, my daughter decided we needed to wrap them in some "funky' yarn that looked like feathers. She added paper beaks and eyes and the little fuzzy birds are resting with the one that didn't hatch yet. Tomorrow we will work on a nest!

A Pefectly Warm and Cozy Reading Fort

The snow is melting but it is still a bit chilly in the morning outside. This made it a perfect morning  to do a little baking project and cozy up in the reading fort with some good books.
You can find directions here for a version of this quiet reading space.

Coyote Class

My little one goes to coyote class today at the nature center. Before class I thought we'd do a couple coyote projects!
We looked at a few videos of coyotes howling before we did this silhouette. I cut out the coyote image for her and then we talked about why and when these animals howl. To add a bit of literacy she wrote what her coyote was howling at. I love that she added a little Van Gogh wind and snow to complete the scene!

And a mask project......

Collaborative Spring Bird Art.....

We have been reading a few art inspiring bird books this week that I wanted to share. 

Birds by Kevin Henkes has lovely illustrations and ideas for background painting....

Another sweet and simple bird book is Nest by Jorey Hurley

We have been waiting so patiently for our little bird friends to come back singing.....

It's delightful to hear!

Conference Self Portraits and Interview

Before conferences I had each student draw a self portrait and answer a few questions. The difference between these and the portraits they did on their first day of school is so big! Students really paid attention to detail and focused on basic shapes for their eyes and nose. The interview was a fun exercise and only took a minute for each student.