Zoo Theme 2014!!
A General Update
Wow, I can't believe its been two years since I posted! A lot has happened since then. I've had a few different teaching positions, along with a few part time jobs, and finished graduate school, About eight months ago I relocated to North Carolina from New Jersey to take a full time elementary art position. As of now, I finished my first year and plan on sharing some of my more successful lesson endeavors.
K-5 Art Projects
I feel that my most successful lessons were those that were part of the school wide art theme I implemented this past year. I picked the zoo for my theme because I was inspired by a recent trip to the zoo over Thanksgiving break. I thought back to how much I loved animals as a child, and hoped my students would share in my enthusiasm. I set to work in picking a colorful animal and an age appropriate approach to the animal for each grade. Along with their individual projects, each grade created a mural. K-2 drew pictures and then cut and pasted them to the mural. 3-5 drew pictures directly onto their murals and got to do some research so they could add some facts about their animal onto their murals. Once the projects and murals were all done, I turned the hallway into a zoo. Here are the results:
Welcome
I drew the bubble letters and then asked a few of my 5th graders who finished their individual project early to turn each letter into a zoo animal. They did a better job with this than I could have done. I think it is so imaginative!
 |
| Welcome Sign |
 |
| Bulletin Next to Welcome Sign |
Kindergarten Lions
 |
| Kindergarten Lions and Mural |
 |
| Kindergarten Lions Bulletin |
1st Grade Peacocks
 |
| 1st Grade Peacocks and Mural |
 |
| More 1st Grade Peacocks |
 |
| 1st Grade Peacocks Bulletin |
2nd Grade Lizards
 |
| 2nd Grade Lizards and Mural |
 |
| 2nd Grade Lizards Bulletin |
3rd Grade Toucans
 |
| 3rd Grade Toucans and Mural |
 |
| 3rd Grade Toucans Bulletin |
4th Grade Zebras
4th graders learned about the color wheel and color mixing because I though rainbow Zebras would be more fun to see in the hallways.
 |
| 4th Grade Zebras and Mural |
 |
| 4th Grade Zebras Bulletin |
5th Grade Giraffes
These giraffes were three and a half feet tall! They were such a big hit! I let the students pick their own color schemes for their giraffes. Again, I thought colorful animals would be more fun to see in the hallways.
 |
| 5th Grade Giraffes and Mural |
 |
| 5th Grade Parade of Giraffes |
 |
| More 5th Grade Giraffes |
 |
| Even More 5th Grade Giraffes |
Onto Next Year...
Now that my first year of teaching in North Carolina is over, I am already tossing around ideas for next year. My goal for next year is to implement two school wide themes. This time, I plan on actually keeping up with this blog and posting in progress work along with more details about how the projects were created like I've done in the past. Stay tuned!
