Tall Tales- The Remarkable Farkle McBride

Today's book was The Remarkable Farkle McBride by John Lithgow. None of the students had heard this book yet, so it was fun reading it to them for the first time.

Our first project of the day was building a drum out of recycled materials. The parents were asked to bring a cylindrical container for their child. We had coffee cans, juice containers, milk jugs, oatmeal containers, etc. The children used the materials that we have accumulated over the last 4 days to decorate their drums. Some of them even added to the inside of their drums so that they could not only be drums, but be maracas, as well.

The next project was one that I have seen multiple times- Kandinsky's circles. The children folded their paper into 8 sections. They used oil pastels to color and add circles. Some of the children decided they didn't want circles and they added hearts, stars and other shapes. 

Our last project of the day was an emotion painting. Each student had a canvas (11x14). There was a selection of acrylic paint, brushes and small sponges on the tables. They were asked to paint using their emotions. There was also music playing, so they were able to use the music as inspiration. The novelty of having their own canvas was inspiration enough for some of the children!

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Tall Tales 2014- Elmer the Elephant

Today's book was Elmer by David McKee. 

After reading the book to the children, we started our 3 projects.

One project was a sponge painted Elmer. The students traced a large elephant shape onto a piece of white paper. They used square sponges dipped in paint to paint their elephant. For the sponges, I bought Miracle Sponges from School Specialty. They come in a pack of thin sponges that are easy to cut into whatever shape you want (in this case, small squares). Once they are dipped in water, they expand to their full size.

The second project was an elephant sculpture made out of air dry clay. The student made their sculpture and then placed them onto a piece of cardboard for transport (the parents brought cereal boxes that were cut into manageable sizes). The children painted the elephants with tempera paint. 

The last project of the day was an elephant made out of a milk jug. The jugs were cut in half and we used the part with the handle (this acted as the trunk). The children covered the jugs with tissue paper and watered down glue. They added googly eyes and ears (made out of foam sheets) and then decorated them with yarn, beads, and any other materials they could get their hands on.

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