Chickens and Hens and Math Oh My!

Students in the 3rd grade created these fantastic chickens. We talked about shapes that create a chicken. --(Oval body, Triangle tail, circle head, rectangle legs etc.) We looked at photos of chickens raised by my friends.  After the shapes were drawn in pencil, the students started to paint with bright colors. The emphasis was on the brushstrokes- this really portrays the feathers on the bird.

 The second class the students finished with all the details then started on the background. The background resembled the chicken wire of the chicken coop. This was created by using a hexagon math manipulate and students traced around those creating a tessellation type pattern. Even though they used the shape to trace many students had difficulty with connecting the hexagon shapes. We just joked the wire was a little bent. HA! Students then cut out the chicken glued in on the chicken wire then added some paintedpaper straw.  The project took 3- 40 minute classes.