Every February our entire school participates in a read-a-thon. The theme this year was "Going on a Read Trip" which took the students on "tours" of various national parks. The preschoolers used their knowledge of wildlife, nature and national parks to create this classroom mural.
The first thing we did was blot white paint on our backdrop with cottonballs to create clouds. We then used construction paper to create the mountains, trees and our sun (which of course needed glitter!). The preschoolers then honed their cutting skills by taking scissors to magazines to find animals for our park.
The preschoolers came up with several name ideas for our park including Beautiful National Park, Butterfly National Park and my personal favorite, Super Awesome National Park. The majority of the class voted for Tree Stone National Park, the only national park where buffaloes and polar bears roam the same mountain range!
I was so impressed with the preschooler's creativity! They searched for dirt, grass and small sticks outside to add to our mural. Several students used the art center to create signs (we wrote down what they dictated). They also decided that we needed a road so people could visit the park. I added the clip art cars driven by the preschoolers. They loved it!
