Macaw Collaborative Project (Part 2): Endangered Animal Study

Our collaborative macaw project is almost finished!  Yesterday was the last day of school, so I will be finishing the belly on my own.  The students were so eager to see it finished, but I let them know that it will be hanging up all next year when I turn my room into a rainforest.  Here is a close-up of the papers, the students cut "football shapes" or "teardrop shapes" for the feathers and then I called them up a few at a time for placement.

While the students were working, they were also creating their own recycled macaw.  Here are some examples from Kindergarten and first grade.  This was a wonderful end of year project, it only involved the scrap paper buckets and glue sticks or glue bottles.  Best yet, they loved creating their own macaw to take home with them!

Rocket Stenciling: Second Grade Printmaking

In second grade, we learned how to use a stencil.  For this project, we created rocket ships!  This was their first real project of the year, and they really loved it :)  Each year, students learn about a different method of printmaking, and in second grade it is stenciling.  For this stenciling project, the stencil is given to them ( the next stenciling project of jungle animals, they make their own stencils).

On day one, we learn about stenciling and come up with a rough draft - what colors do we want to use, what details do we want to add to our rocket and the outer space?  

Day two, we created painted paper.  I give the students a 9" x 12" piece of paper and if they have time a 6" x 9" piece of paper for the fire.  The larger paper will become the rocket, the students come up with any pattern they like: stripes, zig-zags, polka dots, etc.  The smaller paper is for the fire and is painted with only warm colors (yellow, orange and red).

On day three, the students trace the rocket stencil and cut out their rocket.  Then they learn how to trace part of the stencil, only the top of the stencil, or trace the wings of the stencil.  They also line up the fire with the back of the stencil and use it to see how wide the fire needs to be.  We only focus on the rocket itself on day three.

On day four, we begin by stamping the stars in the sky.  We talk about how this is the printmaking process that they learned when they were in first grade.  While that dries, the students use the scrap paper bins to create planets, stars, portholes, asteroids, UFOs, etc.  They glue down all of their details as the project dries.

Macaw Collaborative Project: Endangered Animal Study

Every year, I choose a new theme for my art show.  This year's theme was the Art of Asia.  I have begun thinking about next year, and the theme I selected was Endangered Animals.  This will tie in nicely with my school's increased arts integration program.  Part of the reason I choose this theme was because I wanted students to be more aware of the decision that they make and how those decision effect our environment.

So to kick off the them for next year, I told my younger grades that we were going to make a giant scarlet macaw entirely out of recycled materials.  The older grades (3 to 5) were making paintings of scarlet macaws to kick off the new theme, so this related nicely.

After a brief history of the macaw and the amazon rainforest, I made the connection with the students that recycling paper means that less trees are cut down in the rainforest.  Now I know that is over-simplifying a complicated issue, but after a discussion, they saw how the two were related.

So, to begin this project, I showed the class how I drew a large macaw (started with basic shapes.  I did not intend on drawing the entire thing in front of my kindergarten class, but they were mesmerized by watching it, so I did!  Then I got out our scrap paper bin.  Every time a student uses a piece of construction paper, any left-overs are put into these bins.  They come in wonderfully helpful for many things throughout the year: collages, free draw crafts, paper sculpture, fixing mistakes by covering up.

The students love looking through the scrap paper bins.  I talked to my students about all of the colors that we would need to make our macaw (I know there is no purple in the scarlet macaw, but I added it for our rainbow effect).  The students cut papers into football shapes, ovals or teardrops, making sure the shapes were larger than their thumb.  Then, the students sorted the paper into different bins by color.

As the students were cutting and sorting, I began gluing the colors onto the bird.  I called one table over at a time (4 students) to select the next feather to get glued and where they wanted it.

My second grade classes were also involved in this process.  They were given the scrap drawing paper (everything left over from weird cutting sizes) to create painted paper.  They selected colors that were neighbors and I talked about analogous colors.  These papers were then cut into feathers by the first grade classes.  It was really neat how all of the younger grades contributed to this project!  I will post the finished project as soon as it is complete!