Stellaluna 3-D Art I Love a Good Rectangle

There have been years when I really didn't want to read the book Stellaluna near Halloween. I'm a science freak and I really felt all of the great learning about bats was being drowned out by Halloween craziness. I really don't know why this year was different except that it seemed the perfect time to compare fiction and informational texts using the common core standards. Well I couldn't be happier with the little honeys and what they have learned. It is music to the teacher's soul to hear the kids using the language they have learned in school about comparing texts. I always have to have some kind of art activity and I wanted it to be "Science Art" as it is called in my class. That is real representations with an artistic twist. I used the trusty rectangle to help the children make their own original art. I have a lot of pictures so bear with me as I share. This project took about 4 days in 20-30 blocks. I have to show this picture first in case you don't look any further. This is one of the finished pieces and one of the little girls nestled a baby bat inside the Mom just like Stellaluna. Need I say more...

This shows one of the children cutting a bat from a brown rectangle of folded paper. I showed them an example of how to draw the half bat but they all drew their own and they are amazing.

Tearing light brown long rectangles to make the branches. It is important for me to show you these photos. I so believe in nurturing the creative spirit of children.

Almost finished piece without the leaves. We used the Stellaluna book for reference in making the art. We used brown instead of black since we were learning about fruit bats. Everything was made out of a series of rectangles. These kids are amazing!