Butterflies, Ladybugs, and Birds...Oh My!

I have a giant bulletin board in the back of my library.  Inspired by the book Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner, I decided that we would read books about bugs, gardens, flowers, butterflies, and birds and create a  mural on that bulletin board.  Every grade will make a part of our mural which will include both an underground and above the ground look at a garden.

Kindergarten read The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle and made ladybugs using black crayons and red watercolor paint.

1st Grade read Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert (an author that we had studied earlier this year) and made butterflies by cutting a folded piece of paper, painting on one side of the butterfly, and then folding it in half to make a mirror paint image on the other side.

Pipe cleaner antennae's will be added to every butterfly.

2nd Grade read Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert and made 3D flowers by folding and cutting paper.

3rd Grade read birdsongs by Betsy Franco and Steve Jenkins and created birds out of construction paper


             

                                              




















Pre-K read a non-fiction book about bees and started some fingerprint bumblebees.  I don't have any pictures of these yet because at the moment they are just yellow fingerprints ;)

Lois Ehlert - Part 2

While celebrating Lois Ehlert, we read Snowballs (see my blog post about it here) and Oodles of Animals.

After reading the book, my students created animals using torn paper.  I just love what they came up with!!

Lois Ehlert - Part 1

https://theeducatorsspinonit.com/2012/09/lois-ehlert-author-study-virtual-book.html

The Author Spotlight was on Lois Ehlert during the month of November.  She turned 82 years old on November 9, 2016.  She is the author of numerous books, most of which lend themselves beautifully to the creation of art in our library.  We read The Scraps Book: Notes from a Colorful Life.  My students and I really enjoyed this book and learned a lot about Lois Ehlert and the style in which she creates her art.  I highly recommend this book!

In the past I have had students create art using the book Eating the Alphabet but this year we used Snowball and Oodles of Animals.

This is how we made our snowmen after reading Snowballs...

Each student got to choose 3 torn "snowballs".  

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I used a chip and dip tray to organize the supplies.  There were feathers, buttons, noodles, black beans, scraps of fleece, pom poms, and ribbon.

Supplies, paper and glue all set up for a Pre-K class.  They weren't good at writing their names yet, so I wrote their names on the paper and had them look for their name :)  

Some of the finished products...