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!

Pumpkin Art....I Love a Good Rectangle Common Core 1.G

I love to integrate art into all my subject areas! Fall is here and everyone is talking about fall and all of the exciting seasonal changes that come with fall. All of the children love pumpkins and there are so many wonderful books about pumpkins for literacy but I wanted to have an art activity that integrated math. I love a good rectangle and all of the ways it can be reshaped with scissors and tearing. Since I am focusing on Geometry in the Common Core Standards for math especially 1.G I decided we could reshape some rectangles into some Pumpkin Patch Art. We did this activity over several days. I gave the children each of the shapes you see in the photograph below. The only one that is missing is a very long rectangle which is 1 x 18 inches out of green paper for the curly stem.

The children used the brown rectangle which was 4 x 18 inches to make the ground on the blue paper which is a full size rectangle. Then they cut the corners on the orange rectangles to reshape them into circles and ovals. My orange pieces were 8 x 10 and 5 x 7 inches you can vary it however you like.

I showed the children how to make ribs on their pumpkins using a black crayon. They really worked at this and made their pumpkins look very authentic and creative. I never showed them a complete example. I do not like completed examples because I want each child's art work to be an original.

One of the parts the children enjoyed the most was making the curly vines. I demonstrated how to tear the thin green long rectangle in half with their fingers. Some of them were a bit upset because their piece tore in half...no worries I explained we can still use it. It just makes the artwork look more unique and adds details. I love details in everything. My kids know this word backwards and forwards. Detail in writing, math etc. Details paint a better picture in our minds I tell them.

The children have gotten so many compliments on their art . It is displayed in the hallway outside of our room. This is an excellent activity for converting shapes! Look for for more rectangle art in my blog. I love a good rectangle in reading, math in everything!!