My classes of kindergarteners were ready to do another Dr. Seuss project! I was excited and chose Yertle the Turtle! This book is all about a turtle who wants to be king of the turtles and see everything around the pond and cannot control himself to stop building his turtle stack. We as a class, are making five turtle stacks. I read the book to the students and then a turtle stencil for each of them. I wanted to observe how they traced and how that image translated when they cut them out. The students used cool colored paper and cut out five turtles. They could be facing left or right, could be placed sideways and upside down in the stack, so students enjoyed this aspect of the lesson. After the turtles were cut out, students added faces and patterns with construction paper crayons. The patterns were just added to the shell, not the entire turtle which was adorable! The last step was choosing background paper, students could choose green or blue and their works were then matted on the opposite color (see images). These were sent to the library to display for Read Across America!

Arty On! Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

Gearing up for Dr. Seuss's Birthday and Read Across America, the 2nd graders were enthusiastic to make Seuss-ical fish! The students worked on this lesson for two days. The first day, the book One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish was read and the students were interested in the style of drawing used by Dr. Seuss. After the book was read, students were reminded (from the book) "not one thing will look like another" which was my motto for the lesson! Students were given a Sharpie and asked to draw one large fish, it could be swimming or walking, old or young, hairy or bald, their choice!
The second day, students painted horizontal lines for the background and had the option to add glitter (which most did). Our use of color was using the three primary colors because Dr. Seuss focused on primary colors often. Students cut out their fish and added details using oil pastels. We glued the fish down in the center of the page and hung them up!

Arty On!

Gearing up for Dr. Seuss's Birthday and Read Across America, our kindergarteners got the chance to hear the story of The Lorax. The Lorax was chosen because it is a popular Dr. Seuss book and the movie is coming out soon and many of our students have been talking about it! I read the book to the students, which is a long story but captivated them with the rhymes and riddles. Such a fun book to read and hear! The students then worked on making 3-D Truffula Trees! I worked with two different groups of kindergarten students and each group created a different tree.
The first group used pipe cleaners and twisted them together to make a trunk that looked striped. They made 4 trees and used pom pom balls for the truffula tree tops! The base was a green piece of paper and a ball of Model Magic that the students painted green.

The second group used dowel rods painted white and they painted black stripes around them for the trunk. This group only made one tree due to drying time and assembling stages. Their truffula tree tops were made of yarn balls which were cut in different places to create a pom pom effect! Their base was also a green piece of paper and a ball of Model Magic that the students painted green.
Everyone enjoyed the project and getting to choose what bright colors to use for their trees!

Arty On! Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!