For my Kindergarten students, I focus on helping them learn the basics of the art room as well as the joyful discovery of creation. Practicing fine motor skills, like using scissors, how much paint should go on that brush and just how much glue you should squeeze out of that bottle at a time are abilities that come with repetition.
I find ideas for projects all over the place, from seeing a billboard to spotting something wonderful from another art teacher's web site. If I've used or expaned on another art teacher's idea, I will definitely mention it, so you can find it as well.
I find ideas for projects all over the place, from seeing a billboard to spotting something wonderful from another art teacher's web site. If I've used or expaned on another art teacher's idea, I will definitely mention it, so you can find it as well.
Self-Portraits from the 2011-2012 School Year
At the start of every year, I have students draw self-portraits. For the Kindergarten kiddos, we simply draw what they think they look like using a pencil and then add color using crayons. Here are a few wonderful examples for you to enjoy!
Kindergarten Monsters from the 2011-2012 School Year
This idea was based on a post which I found on my newest addiction on the internet, Pinterest. If you have never gone to the Pinterest site, check it out by clicking HERE. I read the children a story I found on the internet entitled "The Day a Monster Came to School" and substituted the Kindergarten teachers' names in as I read to each class, the music teacher, Mrs. Seifert and the art teacher, Ms. Haase also made appearances in our story. Since the story had no pictures to go with it, I asked the kids to draw a monster using shapes. I asked them to draw LARGE monsters since we were going to paint them during the next class. Each child had a paint pan with red, yellow, and blue paint on it. I told them that these three colors have a special family name, like their last names, called primary colors. Then I showed them if you mix two primary colors together, you will make secondary colors; orange, green, and purple. This, of course, is magic and all the kids had a great time painting.
Piggies! From the 2011-2012 School Year
This lesson was inspired from a pin that I found on Pinterest, that you can see here. First we read the book 'The Three Pigs' by Wisconsin author David Wiesner which was a Caldecott Award winning book. Then, together, step-by-step, we drew shapely pigs! First, a large square for the pig's body. Then, a circle in the middle of the square. After that we added two ovals for nostrils and a half circle beneath our pig's nose for it's mouth. Triangles for ears and rectangles with a twist for feet. The rectangle twist was to take out a triangle at the bottom because pigs have hooves that are cloven! Our piggies couldn't see, so we added eyes and some eye lashes! Then we learned about a fancy term; horizon line. That's where the sky and the earth meet and you had to be extra careful because a horizon line can't go right through your pig! Your pig simply would not approve! Finally we used oil pastels to add color. This was a new discovery for our Kinders! Oil pastels are WONDERFUL because you can blend the colors! This project took three classes in order to allow everyone enough time to color and we had a piggishly good time!
Royal Pooches from the 2010-2011 School Year
This project is an idea from Patty over on Deep Space Sparkle Art I gave the kids a choice to draw one of two dogs that we drew together as a class. Next we colored our dogs and crowns in using oil pastels and finally, we painted the background using water color paints. The cool part of this project is learning that oil anf water don't mix, so you can paint right over the oil pastels and it still shows up! This kind of painting is called a resist painting. Here are some of our fantastic results!
Clay Hands from the 2010-2011 School Year
As their first experience with clay, I trace each student's hand onto a slab of clay and then I just let them go crazy! I put out all kinds of wonderful tools and things to create texture for the kids to experiment with. If they ask me what something will do to the clay, I return the question and ask them to find out. After all, if they don’t like it, we can simply erase it out of the clay. Clay is a very forgiving medium. Much later we will paint the newly fired, and breakable, clay tablets. Here are some examples before they have painted. I will take more action shots and post more photos after they have a chance to paint.
Winter Wonderland with a Snow Person! From the 2010-2011 School Year
Once it starts to get cold out, the kids automatically start thinking of rolling out those big balls of snow to make people. This is actually a very long project for the Kinders, taking up to four weeks to get to the final surprise. I only see each Kindergarten class once a week for thirty minutes, so please don't think we are too slow!
DAY ONE: The first step with this project is to trace three different size circles on white paper using pre-cut circles that I have made for them. Once this is accomplished we carefully cut out each circle. Then I give the kids choices for the color of their background paper; teal, dark blue, gray, or black. They love to have these choices and it gives all of their art a unique feeling. Once they have made the difficult choice of background color, I show them how to use the right amount of glue. We have two sayings that I like the kids to remember about glue, "Just a line, it will be fine." and, "Just a dot, not a lot." I also remind them frequently to write their name on their background paper so we can avoid confusion about which art work belongs to which child. Then comes their favorite part, feeding Jane-Bob the recycle monster the white paper scraps!
DAY TWO: Each child gets a long, thin strip of black paper and an orange square of paper. I demonstrate how to snippity-snip squares from the long strip of black paper and then how to use just a dot, not a lot of glue to make the face of their snow person using the squares of black. I ask them what shape a snow person's nose is as well and demonstrate how to cut out a triangle. We then move on to giving the snow person arms. I give each child a 3x12 inch strip of brown paper and show them how to fold in in half to make a rectangle. Then I use a pencil to draw my stick arms and cut out two arms at the same time! Magic! We then experiment with how the arms can be positioned, but still stay attached to the snow person's sides.
DAY THREE: Keeping our snow person dressed and warm becomes the project for the day! I demonstrate to the kids how to make a scarf and mittens for the snow person as well as how to cut up paper to make patterns. The sky is the limit here and one of my favorite events always occurs when a child will ask me if they can add something or another to their snow person and I say, "YES! Of course! It is your snow person!" As soon as the kids have faith that there is no right or wrong for adding clothing, their imaginations go wild. Its wonderful to see.
DAY FOUR: The surprise! All during this project, I keep telling them that there will be a surprise at the end. Something wonderful that we will add to make our snow person complete. And, finally, after all those weeks of waiting, the day arrives! We add snow to the ground for our person to stand in using a mixture of shaving cream and Elmer's glue. This creates a fluffy, squishy looking snow that when the kids are done mushing it around, I add some silver glitter to it to make it sparkle, just like REAL snow! It is an eventful, exciting day in the art room.
DAY ONE: The first step with this project is to trace three different size circles on white paper using pre-cut circles that I have made for them. Once this is accomplished we carefully cut out each circle. Then I give the kids choices for the color of their background paper; teal, dark blue, gray, or black. They love to have these choices and it gives all of their art a unique feeling. Once they have made the difficult choice of background color, I show them how to use the right amount of glue. We have two sayings that I like the kids to remember about glue, "Just a line, it will be fine." and, "Just a dot, not a lot." I also remind them frequently to write their name on their background paper so we can avoid confusion about which art work belongs to which child. Then comes their favorite part, feeding Jane-Bob the recycle monster the white paper scraps!
DAY TWO: Each child gets a long, thin strip of black paper and an orange square of paper. I demonstrate how to snippity-snip squares from the long strip of black paper and then how to use just a dot, not a lot of glue to make the face of their snow person using the squares of black. I ask them what shape a snow person's nose is as well and demonstrate how to cut out a triangle. We then move on to giving the snow person arms. I give each child a 3x12 inch strip of brown paper and show them how to fold in in half to make a rectangle. Then I use a pencil to draw my stick arms and cut out two arms at the same time! Magic! We then experiment with how the arms can be positioned, but still stay attached to the snow person's sides.
DAY THREE: Keeping our snow person dressed and warm becomes the project for the day! I demonstrate to the kids how to make a scarf and mittens for the snow person as well as how to cut up paper to make patterns. The sky is the limit here and one of my favorite events always occurs when a child will ask me if they can add something or another to their snow person and I say, "YES! Of course! It is your snow person!" As soon as the kids have faith that there is no right or wrong for adding clothing, their imaginations go wild. Its wonderful to see.
DAY FOUR: The surprise! All during this project, I keep telling them that there will be a surprise at the end. Something wonderful that we will add to make our snow person complete. And, finally, after all those weeks of waiting, the day arrives! We add snow to the ground for our person to stand in using a mixture of shaving cream and Elmer's glue. This creates a fluffy, squishy looking snow that when the kids are done mushing it around, I add some silver glitter to it to make it sparkle, just like REAL snow! It is an eventful, exciting day in the art room.
How to make a rainbow
DAY ONE: We discuss what colors are the primary colors. This always reminds me just how much knowledge these 5 and 6-year-olds soak up so quickly, because they know exactly what the primary colors are