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??  ;)

How are you celebrating Earth Day at your school?

Happy Friday!!!  (what a crazy long week ... thought I wasn't going to make it for a while).