Bare Trees with 1st Grade

I did a project with my 1st graders yesterday on Halloween. It was a really bad idea because they were completely crazy with thoughts of costumes, candy, and fun times. Luckily, they came to art class immediately after their fall party in the classroom. Seriously, my 1st graders were crazy-town yesterday! They finished the project in about five minutes. Not okay.

I searched Pinterest (yes, I finally gave in) for a quick, filler project and found this. I thought drawing trees would be a cute project even if none of them ended up looking like trees are supposed to.

Let me just say, my 1st graders blew me away!! These turned out so well!!

I drew a tree under the ELMO document reader using the letters "Y" and "V." I used crayons only; crayons are my favorite. Here is my example:

Here are the awesome trees made by my talented 1st grade students!

I'm so proud and impressed! I may have used this as a filler lesson, but I think now that I should develop it into a bigger lesson! These look so cool!!

Chicka Chicka, Boom Boom: Letters with 1st Grade

This is a lesson I borrowed from my student teaching experience. On YouTube, I found the Scholastic video "Chicka Chicka, Boom Boom." I had students watch the video and ask them to pay close attention to the way the letters move.

After watching the video, I handed out paper to the students. I demonstrated how to turn a letter into something different, i.e. an H into a horse. I then had students draw the first letter of their name and turn it into something.

I feel like this may have been more successful if we had first done one all together, but I only have 25 minutes with 1st grade at the school I've taught this. Sad! Here are a few great examples!

C into Cat

T into a Table with an umbrella!

O into an Egg in a bird's nest.