December Happenings

December was a fun month for Miss Woodward's Class.  We had a lot of fun doing winter-themed projects.  Here's the run-down of our busy month!

1.  Polygon Snowflakes

The kids traced and cut out polygons to create beautiful winter snowflakes.  On the back of their snowflake, they wrote about which polygons they chose and the properties of each polygon.  Remember these green polygon foldables?  They were a great resource when it came to writing about the snowflakes.

2.  Holidays Around the World

Each student made a passport in preparation for their travels around the world.  The week before Winter Break, the students traveled to a new country every day.  The country in my classroom was China, and we learned about Chinese New Year.  We made lucky dragon puppets.  :)

We even had a special visitor one day!  My good friend from high school, Tracie, came to visit and help out with making dragons.

The students also traveled to India with Ms. Meredith.  There, they learned about Diwali and made beautiful Rangoli designs with glitter.

In Ms. Tarah's class, they traveled to Israel to learn about Hanukkah.  They made dreidels and learned how to play the game!

In Ms. Eichhorn's class, students traveled to Sweden to learn about St. Lucia.  While there, they made ornaments for their trees.

The teachers taught the same lesson four days in a row.  The students traveled in groups and went to one country every day for the week.  After the lesson and craft, we wrote facts we learned in their passports, and we stamped their passports so they could exit the country and return to the United States.  It was such fun!

3.  Gifts!

Also in December, I wrapped 19 blankets for my students for Christmas.  I got them on Black Friday for $1.50 each.  Many of my students share beds with multiple siblings or sleep on the floor.  :(  It's heartbreaking, so I try to give them something that is useful and that is their own.  

4.  Feeling Crafty

I found my crafty side again and made some cards for coworkers.

I also made some treats!

5.  Wacky Wrapping

One of my students gave me a gift wrapped in this paper.  I'm just trying to picture all the presents under her tree at home in Justin Bieber paper. (ha!)

6.  Watercolor Resist Paintings

We did some watercolor resist painting, too!  It's so easy!  Draw your design in white crayon on paper, then use watercolors to paint over it.  The watercolor paint will not work over the crayon, displaying your pretty design!

A finished watercolor resist.

7.  Cookie Monsters...

… That's what you get when you give 19 third graders a tub of frosting and sprinkles.  Ms. Teresa made a few appearances in Miss Woodward's Class last year, but had only been in once this year!  So she decided to bring in some sugar cookies and all the decorations to let the kids create some edible "masterpieces".  I have never seen so much frosting and sugar piled up on a single cookie...

After decorating, some of the kiddos taught her how to play dreidel!  In Ms. Tarah's class, they used candy, but with Ms. Teresa, they used colored pencils.    

8.  A Happy Holiday

I had a nice and restful Christmas.  The Woodward's celebrated the weekend before Christmas, and I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Mr. Wolf's family.

Top: brother Clark, brother Dean, boyfriend Kendall, Dad
Bottom: sister-in-law Elise, nieces Ramona and Marianne, me, Teresa

Mr. Wolf and I on Christmas Eve

Overall, it was a productive month!  But I sure am glad to have another week before heading back to school.  How was your December?

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward

The Bright Side of a Rough Morning

Happy Friday!

I had a rough morning... I came to school to find that all of our beautiful scraps of painted paper had been thrown away.  I was so incredibly sad, because we had worked so hard to paint the papers and save all the scraps.

I spent most of the morning painting new papers for the kids to use.  I love doing it, because it allows me to let out my creative side, which I rarely get to do anymore.  They were engrossed in watching me paint.

The aftermath of re-creating papers.

The bright side was that it was Pajama Day for Spirit Week today, and the kids looked super adorable in their jammies.

And, during silent reading time, I overheard two students reading the same book together.  It made me so happy to hear them taking turns reading (especially since it was something I never taught them).  It validated why I buy more than one copy of books.  

Where did you find the silver lining today?

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward

Collage Day 2

Today was the second day we worked on our collage illustrations for our books.  Many of the kids wanted to spread out onto the floor, which made the classroom quite a mess!

I did let some of them start gluing, so they don't lose small pieces.

I love how the textured and multi-colored paper gives depth to the illustrations.

We worked for over an hour, and everyone was very productive!

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward

Collage Crash-Course

Happy Monday!

As you know, we've been working on making books like author/illustrator Eric Carle.  First, we had to write our stories. Second, we painted papers to use in illustrating.

Today, we started using our painted papers to create collages to illustrate our books.  Ms. Meredith (our ELL teacher and former Art major) gave the students a demonstration on how to create collages.

The key was not to trace the animal as a whole, but instead to break it into pieces and assemble the pieces into a whole animal.

What a nice school of fish!

Aren't these jellyfish adorable?

It was only Day 1 of collages, and we will probably continue all the way until the end of the year.  Just after today though, the kids did great!  Stay tuned for a post about their progress!

I can't wait to see the final books!

Until next time,
-Miss Woodward

Painting Time!

Yesterday, I posted about our current Author Study about Eric Carle.  Since we had finished the writing part, it was time for illustrating.  I didn't want to just have the kids draw and color their stories... I wanted it to be the way Eric Carle does his.

Eric Carle uses acrylic paint to paint tissue papers in different colors.  He then uses them to create collages for his stories.  Here is a brief look of how he creates his papers:

I planned to have one day where we would just paint papers to use.  I was really nervous, because I didn't know how the kids would handle such a large and messy project.  But, I'm happy to say that it went really, really well!!

I set up all of the expectations before we started, and I had three other teachers in the room for help.  I had gathered all of the art materials we would need, and set up tarps and butcher paper on the desks.  I put together many different painting "tools" they could use to create textures on their paper.  I found sponges, forks (for scratching at the paint), and paper towel tubes (to use as a circle stamper).

Before we started, I had them think about their story's characters and settings, so they would have an idea of what color papers they would need.  I also did a demo to show all the different tools and techniques they could use to create their papers.

Once we let them work, it was (surprisingly) a very calm environment.  They were very focused on their work!

We let them paint for about an hour and a half (they would have gone longer, but we ran out of drying space!)  After we filled the two drying racks I borrowed from the art teacher, we used every spare corner of the classroom to dry papers.  

Cleanup was a breeze.  All of the kids really pitched in to pick up the butcher paper, clean the brushes and sponges, and wipe down the desks and chairs.

The next step of our book making process is to let the papers dry and then use them to create collages on their final drafts.  I'll keep you updated!

Have you done an Author Study before?  What sort of project did you do for it?

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward