Artistic Freedom

I love making a simple weaving into more than just paper that goes under-over, under-over. I found the book "I'm The Biggest Thing In The Ocean" by Kevin Sherry, and loved the watercolor backgrounds in the book. The weaving allowed me to transform watercolor washed paper into the weavings you see above. The students traced a squid head on the weaving, and painted the interior of that form blue. The next class, the students designed their own tentacles off of the bottom of the base of the weavings. The students painted, cut out, and glued the tentacles on the bottom of the squid.  I have no idea how you would put these in a frame, but they have so much personality. I will post a picture of them displayed in the school hallways soon.

Year three of Eric Carle painted paper animals for 2nd graders. I start with paper, and have the students paint that paper and scrape parts of it off. The next class, the students traced major body parts on the back of the painted paper. The students cut out pieces, and put together the animal like a puzzle. The students used oil pastels, construction paper crayons, and color sticks to add color to the faces and grass. We glued all of this on the all famous and controversial white paper background. We did elephants and BLUE horses last year, and a seahorse the year before. All three years, the students have enjoyed and learned something every step of this project. Hope all of you enjoy.