4th Grade: Spotted Owls

I was inspired by MaryMaking's spotted owl collages from this post: http://marymaking.blogspot.com/2009/12/splatter-painted-spotted-owls.html

4th Graders just finished dissecting owl pellets in Science, so I knew they'd be into any kind of owl project.  Last year, these same students learned about Jackson Pollock and had experience with splatter painting prior to this project- let me tell you...this might be their favorite thing EVER.  We did owl sketches in our sketch books (check previous post) and splatter painted on various shades of grey and brown construction paper (12x18"). We also sponge painted some moons (white tempera with a touch of yellow).  Next class when paper was dry students began cutting and gluing shapes from their splatter paper and from scraps of browns, grays, and white paper.  I had 3 simple tracers for them to use: the body (large raindrop shape), the wing (small raindrop shape), and the face (oval).  They had to come up with everything else free-hand.  *I know some art teachers out there are against students using tracers, HOWEVER, I know that my students know how to make these basic shapes and I like to let them use the tracers for the foundation of the project to get the ball rolling more quickly (it's a time saver, too!)  I believe this gives them the confidence to be more creative with adding more details of their own to the simple foundational shapes.  They created their own tree branch, leaves, eyes, beaks, claws, and brows.