Friday Art Feature - with an Earth Day Twist

It's been a bit since I've done a Friday Art Feature. Two reasons: 1) I LOVED my Kandinsky trees so much I can't bear to take them down yet, and 2) I'm feeling the pressure of testing looming (even though it's more than a month away), and I'm trying to squeeze in as much review as possible.

I wanted to focus on Earth Day at school today, so I thought I'd try to squeeze in a quick art project. And since I was planning on putting these up on a different bulletin board, I could still leave my Kandinsky trees up - they just make me happy.

Isn't this collage of Earth stunning??? My friend, Tracie, had pinned an image similar to this from Artsonia. As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to do this project as part of our Earth Day activities. We recycled old National Geographic magazines for this project (LOVE how vibrant the pictures are in National Geographic - absolutely perfect for this activity).

I gave each student an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of white paper (recycled paper, of course) with a picture of the Earth on it. Each student also got one recycled magazine. I instructed the students tear pieces of coloured images to make their collages - green or brown for the land, blue for the water, and a dark colour for the space around. It was a quick and easy project - only took between 30 and 45 minutes - and the finished products are beautiful! (I think I might like these as much as the Kandinsky trees ... maybe).

We also did our Earth Day Report Cards today (did you grab your free copy yet?). I gave the students the choice between the school or the classroom report cards. I did get a good balance of the two. The students really enjoyed interviewing the principal, secretary, and custodian to find some of the answers for questions asked. I am happy to report my classroom and school scored quite well, according to the students. I LOVED the suggestions they came up with (garbage monitor in the lunch room, ban the electric pencil sharpeners [I SO agree with this one], no homework to save paper [not so sure I agree with this one ... but totally expected it ;)]). I sent the students home with the home version of the report card (so much for no homework), for the them to do with their parents on the 22nd.

Just before I left for the day I put the finishing touches on our Earth Day bulletin board. A few days ago I saw this door on Pinterest (can't find a blog to credit it to), and thought it was brilliant!!! I knew the phrase "The Earth without 'art' is just ... 'eh'", would be perfect. And I was right - LOVE how our bulletin board turned out. Our school is actually recognizing Earth Day all next week, but the early bird gets the worm ... wait ... a worm ... how can that be a good thing?? ;)