Hot Air Balloon Ride

Ever since I was a young girl, I've been fascinated with hot air balloons.  There was a annual festival near my hometown and we would see the balloon floating through the rolling Green Mountains during the month of June.  I found this video clip and had my 3rd grade students watch how magical this experience is.  We "ooooed" and awwwwwwed" at the balloons lifting up into the sky and flying through the lush Vermont landscape and tried to replicate what we saw through a watercolor painting.

Day 1: Working on making rolling hills using watercolor technique

Day two will be devoted to adding the sky and making the hot air balloons.  Stay tuned for more pictures and final products!

Bugs In A Jar

Doreen Cronin has hit a home run with this trilogy!  These captivating books bring a touch of humor and insect facts in a diary style format.  My students always enjoy listening to these books and they lend themselves to an art project.

With summer approaching, we discussed ways we could turn off technology and connect with nature. Collecting bugs is a great way to observe the insect world and have some fun getting messy by flipping rocks, digging in the dirt or busting out a butterfly net to catch some flying creatures.  With that in mind, we designed bug jars and filled with with thumb print bugs.

Each color represents a different bug which needed to have a minimum of four bug details:

wings

legs

eyes

stinger

antenna

stripes

dots

hair

claw/pincher

The final piece to make this project complete is a math word problem.  I designed a template for students to use which made editing and proof reading a real breeze for this projects.

In my bug jar I have ______________   ______________ bugs,

______________   ______________ bugs and 

______________   ______________ bugs.  

How many bugs do I have all together?

______________ + ______________ + ______________ = ______________ bugs