Pattern WigWams

Kinder artists used their prior knowledge of lines to decorate Wig wams or Tee pees. They used repeating lines to make patterns and share their knowledge about Native American living.

Abstract line paintings

Kinder artist had a great time examining lines and trying to find Larry the imaginary snake, who likes to hide in lines around the school :)

Kinder leaf prints

Kindergarten artists loved this spray painting intro to Lois Elherts book Leaf Man!

Kinder Color

 Kindergartens first project of the year! We started with some chromatography- the separating of colors to find the base of our colored markers.  

After our mixing/separating experiments we read Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert. Kinders then used magazine pages to tear and sort color to collage for a rainbow garden. After the rainbow garden was complete we created poetic word clouds with words that came to our minds when we focused on a specific color.

Primary Pumpkins

Kinders created these cute pumpkins using only the three primary colors: red, yellow and blue. They created shades of orange by mixing the red and yellow. Green leaves were added with yellow and blue. A brown stem was topped off by mixing all three primary colors together.

Mono Leaf Prints

Our Kinder artists created these beautiful print. Students placed large stems from a tree on our playground onto a large piece of paper. Then students chose 2 colors of red, orange, yellow, and brown. The fist color was sprayed on and around the center of the leaf and the second color was sprayed around the outside edges of the leaf. The two colors overlapped to create a splatter effect. In printmaking a mono print is the relief of what is placed onto the paper, this process left us with a white outline of our nature print.

Printed Fall Trees

These fall trees were created by our Kinder artists. For this project we did not use any paintbrushed! Instead we used the edge of cardboard pieces to print lines for our tree trunk and branches. Next we used a Q-Tip to create dot prints of red, yellow, orange, and brown to represent fall leaves.

Kg Elefun!

Can't wait to finish these!

Winter tree watercolors

Love the simplicity!

Itsy Bitsy Spider Prints

Kinders had a blast creating spider webs with thumb print spiders. Love this time of year!!

Kinder Characters

We took a creative approach to Kinders Self-Portraits. We created character collages of ourselves. We used fun things like button eyes and string for hair, and wallpaper scraps for clothing. We added a letter block print with our initials and used printing rollers for our background. Very creative!

Snow Bug

This is a winter lesson I just finished with Kindergarteners. We used the "magic" of oil pastel alnd watercolor resist to draw a catapillar type bug with snow flakes inside each segment. We then added snow falling from the sky. The so called magic occurs when the colorful watercolor is applied overtop of the white drawing, snow and flakes magically apear, the little guys love that. To wrap up we write a collective class story about the adventure of our snow bugs.

Pastel Spider Web

This project highlights the lines of a spider web while introducing little hands to conrolling glue and blending chalk pastels. Students first draw a dot in the middle of the paper and make ratial lines reaching to the papers edges. Students then color in each section with a different color of chalk pastel. Using two fingers student blend in a back and forth motion to smooth the colors into the paper and to blend the edges together. Students then create a glue dot and repeat the line pattern they created earlier with glue. Student then add circles that get larger to complete the web. The glue will disolve the pastels showing the black paper and leaving the blended pastels in the web's spaces.

My character

This was a great kindergaten art project. Students explore how found objects can be used to create art. Students scavenger the art room in search of objects that can be used to create a face. Things such as buttons, string pieces, dust bunnies, scrap papers, crayon and eraser pieces, etc. Then using a construction paper circle students assemble a face. Student study pattern and rubbings to create an outfit. Students then sketch hands and feet. To end this project students create a drawing of the asseblage piece they have created. They give thier character a quote and learn how to write in a speech bubble. The two works are mounted and displayed together.

INSPECTING INSECTS

This is a lesson I do with Kindergarten. We talk about how studying a particular subject can help us draw it more accuratley. So we watch a presentation about what it means to be an insect from http://urbanext.illinois.edu/insects/03.html it is actually a 4th grade presentation but the first 10 slides cover the basics like 6 legs, 2-4 wings, antennaes and what they do. Then we play a game I project and image of a group of bugs from google images and in groups they figure out who belongs in our insect bug club (this checks for understanding of previous lesson). Then we create a series of images of insects, one in watercolor, one in marker, and one in chalk or oil pastels. We paste our insect studies on posterboard and show and tell them and do whole group discussion of what we learned. To wrap up we create invented insects out of clay sculptures. This is a great cross curriculum with science.

TORN TREES

This lesson is for kindergarten, we discover how paper can be used to create art as well as dimension. We learn about nature and why the leaves change colors(science). We relate that to why warm colors are warm. We also learn about organic shapes. We tear an organic shape of a tree trunk and then many leaves. This is a good time to review the proper ways to use glue, and not make "glue soup" as I call blobs of glue all over the desks...
The organic feel of this work and warm colors make for a great piece for kindergarten.

ABSTRACT BLOCK PAINTING

This is a kindergarten lesson. I use it an intro to tempera painting. We discuss the different kinds of paint and then compare and contrast their effects on paper. We also learn and look at some abstract artworks. Then we create one of our own. I tell the students that they need to think about the colors they choose and how they move thier brushes.

IT STARTS WITH ME

This lesson is one that I do with Kindergarten early in the year to learn about them.We start by reading the book First the Egg this book is about how things change and turn into other things, like an egg into a chicken, a tadpole into a frog, paint into a picture, a word into an egg, and it ends with a ckicken laying an egg. So it very philosophical for kindergarten about how the book would start agian. The cool thing about this book it that it has see throught holes that peek into the next page as a part of the current page (it really is cool), we mimic this illustration style in our project. Through the book we touch on science and art through the various subjects of the pages.

Now it is time to make our own book. We discuss what it means to be an author and an illustrator. I premake a double sided paper that lays out how the book should be. We fold it and on the front is says "It starts with me..." Below this line we draw a picure of oursleves today we run through the body parts and facial features and look at our clothes and create a picture of ourselves. But we leave the face blank because it gets cut out a a peep hole (like the book). On the inside page it says "And what I want to be" this is where we imagine what we would like to be we grow up. We discuss what that occupation would allow us to look like and what we could do in that profession. We also talk about how shcool and college can help us achieve our goals. So on the inside page we draw the pic of us grown up. Then we write what it is we are. Then we cut out the front face so it peeks into our future selves.

These turn out really cute I was proud of some of the things that they wanted to be. I heard everything from art teacher, to ninja, to archeologist, to super hero....I really enjoyed doing this with the students, especailly at such an early age.

http://www.box.net/shared/ubhl0j3nff -Project Print Out