Kindergarten Initial Dots

This year I decided to do some more structured lessons to start off the year with Kindergarten. I was trying to cover lots of basic skills and now we've started getting into more choice. For Kindergarten's first project, they traced a circle (a dot for International Dot Day), drew their first initial, traced with markers, learned about and created lines and patterns, practiced scissor skills, and practiced using a glue stick. This project gave me a lot of information about my students' beginning of the year abilities so I can tailor instruction and see what we need to work on the most.

 Day 1- Name on papers, trace circles, write first initial, trace initial, start talking about lines

Day 2- Review and practice different kind of lines, draw lines around initial with crayon, cut out circle, glue to square of construction paper, add designs to construction paper if time allows and student chooses.

 

Toddler Collage

One of my favorite parts about being a mom is making art with my 3 year old. Lately he's more interested in activities like building with blocks and using clay, but sometimes he will try something 2-Dimensional for a few minutes.

We had cool painted paper scraps from decorations for my mom's 50th birthday party so I thought my oldest might have fun cutting them up and making his first collage. He had gotten ahold of my big scissors before (briefly) but I had never given him small scissors before. The scissors in the picture were kind of hard for him to use. You can squeeze them but not open wider. I don't know why I bought them. I think I just saw "small" and grabbed the scissors near the other supplies I was checking out. I've since replaced them with regular fiskars scissors. 

 I usually get out a whole tub of art supplies so he can choose what to use. I suggested that he try cutting and it wasn't a big hit, possibly because of the hard to use scissors. He did make a few cuts and I showed him how to use a glue stick to stick them to the paper. That day he was much more interested in the My First Crayola crayons and markers I purchased a couple years ago. The supplies are designed for a palm grip so they're great for toddlers. They also look like animals so he will play with them in addition to making marks.

 He started making up a story about the animals and his cousins going to the swimming pool.

 Here is the final product, his first collage. I'm looking forward to many, many more years of family art-making.

It looks like the design of the product has updated since I purchased our "my first Crayola" supplies. I can't find the exact same crayons and markers but there are similar ones here:

Kindergarten Butterflies

Back in the end of September/beginning of October I did a butterfly lesson with my Kindergarten students. I had recently seen two different butterfly projects that inspired me and the timing was great since the monarch butterflies were really moving through Kansas. I even took a chrysalis to school and though we missed the butterfly actually emerging, the students were really excited to see a REAL butterfly! They named her Dotty. Now back to the lesson... My project was inspired by the following lessons. One from Artsonia, and one from There's a Dragon in my Art Room and her original inspiration was from Art Project Girl.

Source: artsonia.com via Katie on Pinterest

Source: plbrown.blogspot.com via Katie on Pinterest

This was a 3 class period project and while we managed, it was a bit stressful at times. If I do this project again, (as-is, anyway) I would probably save it for 1st grade. It had a lot of good things to introduce- mixing colors, horizontal and vertical, cutting and gluing, etc., but it was a little too much for a lot of my Kindergarteners still fairly early in the year.

Class 1- Introduction to landscape, drawing a horizon line, painting blue sky and green grass. 

I projected some photos of landscapes to show the students and focused on pointing out the horizon line. I told them that the horizon line is where the sky comes alllll the way down to touch the ground. I knew that this would be a knew concept for most of them since I still have 5th graders occasionally draw the big empty space between the sky and the ground but something happened that I didn't expect. A little boy raised his hand and when I called on him he said "I don't believe you." It took me by surprise because usually younger students just eat up everything you say! As soon as he said that other students saying they didn't believe. Luckily I have some big windows in my classroom so I pulled up the blinds and had one table at a time come look outside so I could PROVE that the sky comes down to touch the ground. The rest of the first class was painting the grass and the sky.

We had to put papers on the floor to dry. I have since purchased an additional drying rack and some cheap closet shelves.

Class 2- Mixing yellow and blue paint to make green, painting phonebook pages and adding texture, mixing red and yellow to make orange, turning "B"s into butterflies.

I gave each student a half piece of yellow construction paper folded in half. I wanted to have them paint a "B" on one side that would be painted and folded to print on the other side ensuring a symmetrical butterfly. To get all the students to put their B on the correct side, I had them fold their paper "like a book". I demonstrated how to write a capital letter B and the students wrote their letter on their paper in pencil. I checked each one to make sure it was on the fold not the open side then had them open their "books." Next I showed how to paint mixed orange tempera paint inside the B, fold, and press to transfer paint to the other side. Next we mixed green paint and used texture combs that would later be turned into grass. I had painted on newspaper before but decided to try phonebooks because I always see people trying to get rid of them. It worked OK but the paper was flimsier than newspaper and curled a bit when dried. 

Class 3- Review horizontal and vertical, cutting phonebook pages into strips, gluing "grass" to background, cutting and gluing butterflies on top of grass, turning butterflies into Monarchs with black and white oil pastels, adding purple flowers with oil pastels.

 I was amazed at how many kids cut their butterflies in half (and at how many different ways they discovered to cut the butterflies in half) but I just tried to show them how to make the pieces touch when they glued them in place. I reminded the students how monarch butterflies are orange with black and white designs and if there was time, the students used oil pastels to add details to their butterflies. Then if there was STILL time, I reviewed secondary colors and the students used purple oil pastels to add flowers.

 

Student who missed the 1st class used solid blue for the background.

Stray ladybug hanging out with the butterflies.

You can view more examples in our Artsonia exhibit.

Organic Shape Monsters

The inspiration for this lesson came from Joanna Davis at We Heart Art- Organic Shape Monsters. I love (LOVE!) her idea of using yarn tied in a not to teach organic shape.

Source: ourartlately.blogspot.com via Katie on Pinterest

I pinned the idea for the yarn, intending to do something different with it, but my 1st graders and I were kind of on a monster/wild thing kick so it stuck in my head! I do try not to look at many photos when I'm planning that way it's easier to kind of put my own spin on it. Not that there is anything wrong with not spinning, or that I really spun this one all that much.  Each student got a piece of yarn that I had already tied in a knot and moved it on their paper until they got an organic shape that they liked. They traced with pencil then added details. I told them that their monsters had to have a mouth and at least one eye, some sort of pattern, and a way to get around (does it walk, fly, swim?) After planning in pencil, the students used markers to add details. I always have to remind the students to use the right size tool for the job. I put out regular size markers for coloring in big areas and skinny markers just for tracing lines and adding little details. Of course you'll always have a few students trying to color in their whole monsters body with a teeny tiny marker. I like to just hand those students a marker of the right size and walk away.

The first class was for drawing and starting to add color. I didn't want to keep these as plain drawing since the students had already made Wild Thing drawings and I was trying to decide what exactly to do when I saw a photo my Art Teacher friend, Miss Ihrig, posted on Facebook of her students monsters cut out and glued onto bright colored construction paper- perfect! It was also good since I hadn't cut or glued much with 1st grade yet this year. I took the opportunity to talk to the students about contrast before I let them choose their construction paper. I have a bunch of little girls who LOOOVE pink and would make everything with pink markers and pink crayons on pink paper if I let them. The problem is that monochromatic artwork when everything is the same color is a little hard to see. (They can't quite pull off the subtlety of Rothko's black on black paintings...) I encouraged them to try holding their monster up to different colored backgrounds to see what looked best. Most just pretended to consider other colors then picked their favorite anyway. :)


After carefully cutting and gluing, I asked the students to write a story about their monster. If they needed more prompting, I asked them to tell me their monster's name and something they like to do. I printed off a half sheet writing paper template so they would have the lines they are used to writing on. When the writing was finished, I taped it from the back so their story is visible below their artwork. Students who were super speedy added details to their background with construction paper crayons. Or markers if I didn't notice in time! I think the story was the most interesting part of some. I have some leftover writing paper that I held onto for future lessons because it made their writing so much easier to read.