Sunday, April 11, 2010

We "Sea" Fish

There was a "Sea" theme for Kindergarten Roundup this year so I decided it was a great opportunity to make some mixed media "Sea" artwork!  We created these projects in two 40-minute class periods.

My mom saved a whole box of bubble wrap sleeves that were the perfect size for little hands.  

I used cardboard pieces for palettes and since I couldn't find the brayers that I KNOW are somewhere in the classroom, I tried using cardboard tubes to spread out the paint! I mixed light blue and white paint to get some variation in color.  It worked pretty good in a pinch. :)  The bubble wrap went on the students' hands, pressed gently (I stressed that there was to be NO popping of the bubble wrap) into the paint, and then the paint was printed on blue construction paper.  The paint dried pretty quickly so we were able to move onto adding sand in the same class period.

I am too afraid to let Kindergarten students loose with bottled glue, so I put a squiggle of Elmer's at the bottom of their paper (students chose either horizontal or vertical layouts) and the students sprinkled sand.  I bought a 50 lb bag of play sand at Lowe's for a few dollars and probably only used about a cup for over 100 students.  I placed a little dish of sand at each table and after the sand was sprinkled, the students bent their paper to dump the excess sand back in the dish.  I love the texture the sand adds to the artwork- it makes a nice tactile connection to the element of art.

Example background created in one class period.  *I made an example as I demonstrated in each class and gave it to any students who were absent in the first class period.  In the second class, the students were given a 9x6 inch piece of paper to make their fish drawings.  I showed the students how to make a very simple fish using a circle or ellipse and a triangle.  The students who were more confident drew a fish their own way, some even making sharks.  The drawings were laid out in pencil and crayons were used to add color.





Since I knew this was going to be a messy project, I covered the tables with butcher paper.  It worked out great because when we had extra time at the end of class, I let the students draw on the tables while waiting to wash their hands.  I ended up leaving the paper covers on for about two weeks.  The students kept adding drawings, paint and crayon was added when it went off the edges of the paper.  When I decided to take the paper off, I hung our semi-accidental, collaborative artwork on the walls!

Reminds me a bit of Cy Twombly!

10 comments:

  1. I so love the bubble wrap printing!!!! I have always been a big bubble wrap fan (especially popping it!), so printing with bubble wrap seems so natural for me :) This looks like a very fun project!

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  2. This bubbling project is so simple and at the same time so great! I'll try it in classroom, thanks!

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  3. Glad you like it! The students really had fun printing.

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  4. I liked the fish pictures but thought the squiggles looked too uniform to be done by K students. Then, I sadly read "I'm too afraid to let K students loose with glue bottles..." Perhaps you need a lesson about glue bottles. As an Art teacher I like to think I don't so much teach art, but rather teach kids that they can try anything. I'll pray that you either lighten up with kids and glue bottles, or that you get a new career.

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  5. Wow, way to be encouraging to a first year art teacher! I was working with very tight time constraints. And you know, I've never understood why somebody would bother taking the time to post such a rude comment. Must not have anything better to do.

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  6. Mrs. Morris is the most fantastic art teacher any of my children have ever had. Her love of art shines through in every way and she's a model for all teachers! I'm so glad my children have had the opportunity to have her teaching and I pray she NEVER stops teaching!

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  7. Dear Ann,
    Lighten Up! You mentioned that you are an art teacher, kudos to you! However, You are insulting a FIRST year art teacher! Did ou know it all your first year? Do you know it all now? Art is ever evolving and while Mrs. Morris chose to helpout with the glue, these are kindergarten students! Do you know how many students she has or how long her class period is? If you are experience may be this new teacher could benefit from suggestions, CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, or maybe go all out and offer a word of encouragement! I think it's great to see young students getting the opportuntunity to use more than recycled paper from the office and crayons!c

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  8. Wow! I'm a first year teacher too, and am with you Katie on the glue bottles, right now anyway. I have my Kindergartners for such a short amount of time and there are so many other things I want them to experience and learn that teaching about the glue bottle use wasn't on my priority list this year. Doesn't mean I won't tackle it next year. I would hope we all, new and experienced teachers, learn every year and tweak our lessons to teach our kids more and more. Being kind and encouraging about our observations with other art teachers (and our students and our families and our friends . . .)is so important. You are doing great things Katie, don't ever doubt it!

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  9. Another thing that came to mind . . . each school population is so different, even within one school district. I did observations recently of another elem. art teacher. My main school has a high ell and lower ses population, while the school where I observed is almost the opposite. What she would do with her kids varies MUCH from what I could/would do with mine. Kind of the "walk a mile in my shoes" thing . . . don't be quick to judge unless you really know what it's like.

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  10. Exactly, I know the population of my school, I know how big my classes are and that I have literally NO time between my afternoon classes so I made a decision! I let the students use glue to adhere things but I knew if I wanted the Kindergarten students to "draw" with the glue, I would have needed to add another 40 minute class to have time to demonstrate, and lots of time for clean up! I'm not afraid of the mess, obviously it comes with the territory. And on a side note, that's why I get to wear my cool 1970's apron with a duck on it that the kids love. The music teacher said she would have shown up with a camera and a waterhose if I had the students do the glue all by themselves. I know that I made the right choice for my students and I know they did not feel insulted that I put the glue down for them, they were just excited to sprinkle the sand and move on to the next step! The rude comment still bothers me a little. Not because I think she is right, but because it really didn't do any good! As a teacher, (and a human being), if I thought someone was doing something wrong, I would try to TEACH them and HELP them to do better! Isn't that part of the job? I don't claim to know everything as a first year teacher, I'm figuring a lot of it out as I go along. I just think that encouragement goes a lot further toward reaching a common goal of educating students and sharing art with them than insults and "career advice". :) Thanks for your support, everyone. Maybe now I have it out of my system and can go back to having fun blogging.

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