Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Getting Symmetrical

In honor of the first day of spring the kindergartners made a kaleidoscope of butterflies!


We began by taking a moment to talk about what it means for something to be symmetrical (one side being a mirror image of the other). Many things in nature are symmetrical, including butterflies!

Then the kids got out their materials (multi colored construction paper, scissors, pencils and white paint in elmers glue bottles) and began.


We folded paper in half, traced a half butterfly stencil and then cut the butterfly out. As the kids became more confident with the shapes of the butterflies and arranging the center line along the fold, they began drawing their own butterflies freehand.


After that the kids opened up their elmer's glue bottles (full with white washable paint) and squeezed lines and dots onto one half of the open butterfly. Then the butterfly was refolded, pressed and voila! When it was opened again, there was a beautiful, symmetrical butterfly with a surprising design.


This project is particularly fun because it contains such a strong element of surprise. No matter how we plan or what we try to make, when the butterfly is folded and pressed the qualities of the paint (how much was applied and where) takes on a life of it's own. Opening each one of these butterflies was a treat.
Here are a few particularly nice examples!

Ashley also had a chance to finish her "underwater scene" from last week. Great job, Ashley!


Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Under the Sea!

Today we finished our underwater scenes!


 After cutting out all the fish that they printed last week, the kids arranged their fish in their underwater scenes.

 Then they had a chance to add some sparkle to their fishes scales using a shiny bronze paint.


The results are amazing! If you have a chance to stop by school and see them in person, please do! They are framed and hanging in the main hall of MMS.







Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Printing Fish!

Today we worked on our multi-media underwater scenes and printed our fish!

The kids took turns rolling there plates with paint and carefully pressing pre-cut construction paper rectangles onto the plates.When we peeled the paper off the fish appeared! Look below to see what happened!

When they weren't printing with me, the kids had pipe cleaners, construction paper and tissue paper to glue to their underwater scenes to make plant life and waves. Many children also took the time too add new animal life with markers.

Next week, we will cut out the fish and glue them to the scenes! Take a look below! Beautiful!