4th Grade: Birch Trees

Well, I wasn't going to post these since I thought winter was done- but apparently it's not quite yet!  First day of spring break and I wake up to find it snowing!   So here are my fourth graders winter birch trees.  They did an excellent job.  First we drew a line for our snow.  Next we painted above the snow with watercolors- I told them to choose either a warm color combo or cool color combo, but this student above mixed his and I loved the way it turned out.  On a separate sheet of paper we painted several birch trees using tempera and popsicle sticks.  I squirted black, white, and brown onto a styrofoam tray, let the students drag their popsicle stick through the tray, and then drag the stick across the paper.  Most could fit about 7 or 8 trees on a 9x12" paper.  Once dry, we cut out the trees, glued them onto the snow (at different heights), and then added our light gray cast shadows with watercolors.