Tuesday, May 19, 2020

Turtle time!

Welcome to another week of homeschooling, courtesy of the Coronavirus!  This week I will be sharing a project for my PreK students.  It combines their study of turtles with the recycling of magazines and junk mail that is flooding our homes.  Enjoy!


Materials:
1 paper plate
magazines, junk mail, newspaper
1 blank sheet of paper 
pencil
scissors
glue stick
crayons or markers

Step 1: Gather your materials.  I went through magazines and pulled out a variety of pages that had turtle colors appropriate for the shell.  Looking at the box turtle diagram above, you can see that turtles come in a variety of colors.  Your turtle can be realistic (that means it looks like the real thing) or it can be straight from your imagination (wouldn't a rainbow turtle shell be cool?!).  I decided to go for a turtle with a variety of greens, beiges, browns on its shell.  


Step 2: Begin cutting out shapes from the pages. You could make ovals like I did OR you could cut circles, triangles, squares.  It is totally up to you!  


NOTE: I cut my shapes out of the colored sections that went along with my turtle shell.  Remember to place the rest of the paper "trash" in your recycling bin.


Step 3: Beginning in the center of your plate, glue one shape down.  Then, start gluing piece around it in a circle pattern (see below).  I put the glue on the plate rather than putting the glue on the shape (I think it is easier to see where the pieces go).  That is a personal choice though.

Continue gluing shapes round and round until the plate is full.  While you are gluing your paper plate will flatten out.  DO NOT STRESS! Once all of the pieces are in place you can "POP" the turtle shell back into shape (see below).


Now it is time to create the rest of your turtle.

Step 4: On your blank sheet of paper, draw a head, tail, and 4 feet.  Do you see what shape the tail is??  RIGHT!  A triangle 😀  For your head, draw a circle and a neck (the neck looks like a rectangle).  Your feet can be any shape you wish.  I made mine round on one side and flat on the other, kind of like an oval with a flat side.


Step 5: Once your shapes are drawn, color them in.  I used green, but (again) use your imagination to color your turtle!  It could be green, brown, grey, black, OR a mixed up rainbow!  Be sure to draw a face on your turtle head.  I decided to give my turtle some toes 😉   Once you have finished coloring, cut out your pieces.


Step 6: Glue everything in place!  Turn the plate upsidedown (so you don't see the top of the shell).  I always start with the head followed by the tail.  Gluing these two pieces first will make it so much easier for placing the feet!


Now glue the feet in place.  

All done!!  Turn your turtle over and admire your beautiful creation ❤ 


I hope you have enjoyed creating your turtle.  If you are one of my students, please be sure to post a photo of your creation in the Google Classroom.  I can hardly wait to see!

And if you are a visitor to our blog, WELCOME!  Hope to see you again.











4 comments:

Welcome to a New Year of Art fun!!  After a COVID year of teaching from a cart, I am SUPER excited to be returning to my classroom space!  L...