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With Thanksgiving approaching, I wanted to have some theme based projects that allowed the students to enjoy the holiday season without sacrificing the fine art curriculum. Kindergarten students have been learning painting techniques. For their Thanksgiving lesson, they studied photographs of turkeys and we discussed what they observed; patterns in the feathers, wrinkles on their legs, blue around their eyes, etc. Then, each student painted a picture of a turkey. I offered students a photograph to keep at their desk. Some found this helpful, others found it a hindrance. They became frustrated, trying to draw it “perfectly.” I suggested that they take a “good look” at the photo, make a picture in their head and then put the photo back on my desk. Once they did this, they were free to enjoy the process of creating! This lesson was done over two class periods.

Turkeys in Disguise! With First Grade, I decided to use the turkey disguise project found online. (It is a popular project and easy to find). I approached this as a lesson in collage since the first grade students have been working in this medium. I asked students, “If the Thanksgiving Turkey came running up to you, asking for your help to hide, how would you disguise him?” Students were so excited by this question and they all had a lot of ideas. We reviewed collage techniques and in order to fit “clothing” on the turkey, we reviewed a stick puppet lesson we did in early Fall. This being my first time teaching this lesson, I used a turkey form I found online. My reasoning was I felt it would help students focus on the collage aspect of the lesson. If I am to do this again, I will definitely have them create their own turkeys. I believe this would add a lot more uniqueness to the lesson. However, I do believe, overall, they did a great job expressing their ideas and in applying the collage techniques learned thus far.

Cat

                                                                                        A Sheet of Paper

Turtle

Garden

                                                                                       Airplane

 

 

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