Reach for the stars!

As students return to school, teachers ask their students to project goals for the year.  I decided to team up with my 2nd grade students and take their year goals and turn them into artwork.  We began by talking about the expression, "reach for the stars"; it implies to set your goals high and always aim BIG.

On day one, we made our background.  We talked about painterly brush strokes and how we can achieve a moody sky by simply dipping our brushes into the paint and not mixing the colors inside the cup.  We practiced simple brush strokes of back and forth to achieve these terrific skies.

Back and forth!

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Left to right!

Love these painterly brush strokes

After the skies dried, we discussed ways of getting to the stars.  A ladder was necessary!  By using popsicle sticks and practicing our gluing skills, we counted out 10 sticks to act as the steps of the ladder.

Next, we need to add ourselves climbing the ladder and reaching high for our stars and goals.