Kindergarten Wax-Resist Kandinskys

 My original idea for this Kindergarten project was to make wax-resist concentric circles inspired by Wassily Kandinsky, then use the circles as the center of sunflowers. After the students finished painting their circles (on 6 inch square paper), we liked them so much that we didn't want to cut them! 

  Instead, I decided to display them side by side to make a gigantic Kandinsky-inspired bulletin board.

This is just about the longest bulletin board I've ever seen! I had to use some of my examples and make a couple more signs to fill the space.

We've gotten tons of compliments on this project! The artwork really brightened up the hallway. I took the artwork down on Tuesday. Tomorrow is a work day so I'll be finishing up the YAM display.

Kindergarten Concentric Circles- My New Approach to Kandinsky

My SMART goal this year is about Kindergarten students being able to identify and draw basic geometric shapes.  I am doing one project that focuses on each shape.  Kandinsky's Farbstudie Quadrate was the inspiration for the circle project.  Last year when I did this project, I asked all students to make their concentric circles on a grid, like Kandinsky. (See the first few photos below.)  

 My approach to learning about the artist stayed the same but this year I realized that the grid wasn't necessary so I gave the students more choices.  My regular classes used markers and crayons and my double Kindergarten class did a wax resist version.  (I got permission to take one class at a time into the Art room while a Para led the other class in play-doh sculptures in the cafeteria.)  I really like the free style circle drawings.

2 More Kindergarten Projects

I'm getting a lot done today on our first official snow day of the school year! School was in session yesterday but I called in afraid to make my 4o mile trek to school with worse weather in my area.

Here are 2 more Kindergarten projects I've been meaning to add:

Kandinsky-Inspired Concentric Circles

Kindergarten students learned about artist Wassily Kandinsky and used the DBAE approach- Describe, Analyze, Interpret, and Judge, to discuss his painting Farbstudie Quadrate from 1913. I love the painting and have a poster of it in my classroom. We talked about the shapes and counted the circles and squares, talked about the colors, discusse

d "abstract", learned the word "concentric", shared opinions and ideas, and talked about aesthetics. Here is a picture of Kandinsky's painting:

Several students thought the circles look like eyeballs and of course being in Kansas, a few said they thought it was pictures of tornadoes. I showed the students how to fold their 9x12 inch papers in half horizontally or hotdog style (thank you Dinah Zike) and then how to fold the paper into thirds. After the paper was folded I showed the students how to start

with a circle in the middle of each section then make different colored rings around it using markers and some crayon on top of the markers. The picture above was not quite finished but it's the best image I have of the project right now!

Cars and Roads

I got the idea for this project from one of my Kindergarten students who constantly wants to draw "car roads". At first I thought he was saying Cairo but then he made a drawing to show me, an intricate grid of "car roads" or highways. I played with the idea and came up with this: First students draw their roads, an interesting line that fills the page. Some drew curvy roa

ds, some straight lines, whatever they wanted. After drawing the road, they were to fill in the rest of the space with things you would see next to a road or highway. Next, I showed the students how to draw a VERY basic car and truck using simple shapes. Each student picked a construction paper square, drew their vehicle, and cut it out. I thought it would be good practice to try to cut out the shapes that they drew and while it was very difficult for some, some students surprised me with their fine motor skills! After the vehicles were cut out, they were glued to the roads.