A great project to begin the year is a DOT project. The kindergartners read the book The Dot, by Peter Reynolds. I love this book! We also view a slide show of some artworks that use dots (Australian Aboriginal, Seurat). The first day we trace circles on colored construction paper. We use lids, cups and rolls of masking tape. The children cut these circles out and glue them to a white piece of paper. On the second day, they … Read more…
It has been a busy 2 weeks and a rough transition back to school. The actual “school” part has been just fine. The problems have been with coordinating my schedule and “life balance.” I will talk about that more at the end of this post, but first I will show you some pretty pictures. We have been making sketchbook covers from donated file tab dividers. My sister-in-law works in medical records and they were transferring everything over to digital, so … Read more…
Our last summer art workshop was a fun one! We decoupaged tissue paper on to glass vases. The cylindrical ones could be candle holders. We tore and cut tissue paper and adhered them to the glasses with Matte Medium. I hate the smell of mod-podge, so I rarely use it. I get headaches from it, does anyone else? I figure if I get headaches from it, it probably is not good for the kids to inhale. This Blick Matte Medium … Read more…
I am teaching 3 summer art sessions. Each session is two hours long with one or two art projects. For this session, I had 2 students going into 4/5th grade, 2 students who just finished kindergarten, and one student going into kindergarten. It was a small class, which was perfect for this project, since the pictures were LARGE. To start, we traced our bodies on large butcher paper. Then, we outlined them with markers and used collage materials (magazine images, … Read more…
This was one of my FAVORITE lessons this year. I just loved how each and every one of them turned out. They are so expressive and colorful. This is a new spin on a Starry Night lesson. I started by introducing Vincent Van Gogh’s art by showing prints of his art and by showing a movie: Then, the students drew swirls, dashed and dots to create MOVEMENT using markers. I told that this would be their night sky, so they … Read more…
These were some fun paper Memory Quilts that the kindergartners made! Aren’t they cute? We read Tar Beach, by Faith Ringgold and talked about her story quilts. The children received a square piece of white paper, which had 9 squares pre-drawn in pencil (4 x 4 inches each). I had a variety of scrapbook papers pre-cut into 4 x 4 inch squares. The children glued down their squares and could cut the squares in pieces to make designs. In the … Read more…
We made tiles for Mother’s Day with the Kindergartners… I know it’s early, and it’s a bit crafty, but it is something the parents love to get! Here is what we did: 1. I purchased a bunch of glossy floor tiles (glazed already) at our local Habitat for Humanity Re-Store (which is like a surplus/recycling store for building supplies). Super cheap… like 25 cents each I think. I love these tiles and they are fun to just draw on also, … Read more…
First, DON’T FORGET TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY FOR THE PICK AND DRAW GAME!! I will be picking a winner on April 1. Rainbow Fish is an awesome kids book to go with fish art projects. The kindergartners made rainbow fish sculptures from water bottles. I learned about this idea at the NAEA conference. The lady who presented it did it with large 2 liter bottles, but I used little water bottles instead. Steps:1. Cut off the bottoms of the water … Read more…
The kindergartners made these lively paper weavings with colored paper strips and paper strips cut from scrapbook and wrapping paper. Then, I stapled them to a white piece of paper and the students stamped a border with gadgets, caps and random objects. After the weavings, the students played with the gadgets and made a design with paints.
This was a project the kindergarteners did last week. They first glued down popsicle sticks onto tagboard. Then they added paint to color! I let them use markers in places if they wanted. We read this book:
Hello! Can you believe there’s only 3 days left until the National Art Education Conference in New York? woo hoo! Each day I am planning to give a short update in pictures and words recapping what I did all day. I know I will be so super busy though, so we’ll see if that actually happens! Today is also our regional art show, so I will have pictures of that to show you later. The kindergarten class studied penguins in … Read more…
The kindergartners made Maps of their Hearts! They included things that were important in their lives. We drew with permanent markers first, then watercolor painted them in.. I got this idea from the book “Playful Learning” which would be a great book for a classroom teacher. It was interesting to read, but most of the activities are math, science, reading related.
Henri Matisse is a popular artist to teach about in the elementary art classroom. I’ve seen a lot of Matisse-inspired artwork from other art teachers. His artwork is bright and colorful and lends itself well to teaching about shapes. We read the book Oooh! Matisse and watched the video Dropping in on Matisse The students learned about organic shapes and geometric shapes. They also used their fine motor skills to use shape punchers.
The kindergartners made two clay projects before break. They made little pinch pots and pressed shells on the sides for texture. We glazed these with Stroke and Coat glaze. We also made these fun coiled hearts. 1. Demonstrate how to roll coils with your fingers.2. Pass out a handout with a heart drawn on it (I just free hand drew a heart and photocopied it.)3. Place the coil on the outside edge of the heart and wrap it around. Then … Read more…
These charming pictures of hands were a lesson on warm and cool colors. The hands are colored in cool colors and the heart is colored in warm colors.
