3rd Grade Origami Fish

I explained in my last post that my K-3rd grade school started off the year with a fish theme.  I had the idea to make origami fish and put them on a cool painted background.  I taught an origami boat/Monet water lilies lesson last year that went over well so I figured the fish idea would work.  It did work, but in the future, I won't be doing origami for the first project!  I'll let those little minds get used to following directions first, and hope they'll get over the "I can't"s before attempting origami.

I had never made an origami fish before but I figured it shouldn't be too hard to find a pattern that was doable with students.  It was a little harder than I anticipated to find a good pattern.  I tried out several and came up with two that I liked.

Source: origami-resource-center.com via Katie on Pinterest

My schedule was weird again due to Labor Day.  I knew that my Monday classes would have a class and a half instead of two, my Tuesday classes would have two full class periods, and my Friday kids would have two classes as well.  After I made the plan, I found out that my Friday classes would be gone on a field trip so they ended up with only one class, which is why there are 3 different versions of the project in the first photo!

I started my Monday classes on this Pureland Fish (Pattern by Marc Kirschenbaum) at the end of the first class after the expectations and procedures review.  We finished it at the beginning of the second class then after discussing fish habitats, the students were given cool colored tempera paint to create a background and for added interest they drew a line with glue which they sprinkled *sand on.  Students also used sharpies to add details to their fish.

*I may be a little obsessed with sand.  But it's cheap, it makes texture really easy to understand, and it's lots of fun!  The students would put sand on every project if I'd let them.  They get super excited and ask "Is it REAL sand?"

 I used the cooler/more complicated pattern for my Tuesday classes.  It starts with a pinwheel pattern so I had to look up how to make those as well.  It took quite a while to complete this fish- at least a class and a half.  The students were not left with little time paint their backgrounds so no time for sand!  I don't know if I would try this pattern with 3rd graders again, at least not until much later in the year.

 Friday classes had to move really quickly!  We used cardboard tubes and styrofoam cups to print blue and white paint on blue construction paper then made the fish while that dried.  The students had just a couple minutes left to glue down their fish, add details to their fish and background, and glue down sand.

You can check out the rest of the artwork in our Artsonia exhibit!

3rd Grade Waterscapes

I'm pretty darn happy with this project!  My students are always asking me about origami... The only thing I know how to make is a boat.  My third grade teacher showed our class and I've always remembered.  I decided to teach the students about Monet and his water lily series.  Since he was influenced by Japanese art and origami is a Japanese art form, it was a good tie-in.  

This was a two-class period project.  We covered the Art History at the beginning of the first class then used cool colors of tempera paint to make an Impressionistic painting inspired by Monet's paintings.  I had the students start by painting horizontal brush strokes using the different cool colors before adding the white streaks.  I reminded the students several times not to over blend and pointed out on the projected painting that Monet let the viewer see the individual brush strokes.  The last step of the painting was to add lily pads.

On the second day, I showed the students how to make the origami boats.  I let the students choose a piece of origami paper that I ordered and I used a big piece of paper (probably about 3 feet square) so they could see the folds I made.  I sat on the floor and had the students come sit or stand around me for each step.  I REALLY had to emphasize careful listening and following directions.  I told the students that if the folds were not made carefully, things would not line up correctly and their boat might not work.  The very last step is to turn the folded paper inside out to make the boat shape hold.  After the origami was done, bottled glue was used to attach the boats to the paintings.

 Turning the boat into a boat

Check out more examples in our Artsonia gallery!