totem poles

Over the last month the kids worked on making totem poles! First we looked at images of totem poles for some inspiration. Each child chose a creature and began working on it's head by paper-macheing a balloon and using cardboard and tape to add some three-dimensional features (such as wings, eyes, a wolf's nose, a crown, etc). We needed to apply two layers of paper-mache and then gesso for a base. Then the kids were ready to paint the colors and patterns. The only thing left to do was stack the heads!

Ranger and Smith's heads waiting to dry...
Xavier's dragon gessoed...
Elena painting her eagle...
Max painting his eagle...
Wolfie's dragon in progress...
Grey working on "a crazy one"...
Jack's guardian owl and Leo's eagle ...
Max's eagle...
Dash's bird...
Left totem (from top to bottom):
Silas = wolf
Gigi = woman
Dash = bird
Ranger = spaceship
Ethan = owl king (with crown)
Xavier = dragon
Jack = guardian owl

Right totem (from top to bottom):
Elena = eagle
Wolfie =dragon
Smith = person/knight/owl
Grey = a crazy one
Max = eagle
Leo = eagle