Kinder Circles

One of the first projects for my Kindergarten students this year was stamping and painting dots for International Dot Day. We talked about shapes when the students used empty play-doh containers to stamp circles into a composition. Some overlapped, some didn't. Some dragged the containers all over the paper which made it mostly turn black. I didn't encourage this but didn't make them stop. I might have said something like "Oh, you won't have much room to add color next week if you turn your paper all black!" but I was fine with them exploring the tool.

 In the second class, we talked about the primary colors and how they can be mixed to create secondary colors. Each table was give only primary colors and the students were encouraged to try creating new colors. My new painting management technique is to put out a sponge instead of giving out paper towels. Students clean their brushes in the shared water and then blot on the shared sponge. I think this idea came from Choice Without Chaos if I remember correctly! It has worked very well so far, though I still have students asking "What is the sponge for again?" The sponge is a lot more absorbent than the brown paper towels at school.

I used the opportunity to talk about paintbrush care since it was the first exposure to tempera paint for most students. They did a pretty good job for the first time! I asked them to "dip the tip", hold the paintbrush "like a pencil", and mix paint on the paper instead of mixing all the colors together on the tray. I love how the paintings turned out. Some painted inside each circle and some did not. Either way, I think they are beautiful! Some students even added crayon in the next class period. I am WAAAAY behind on this blogging thing! Oh, parenthood. The boys are worth it! :)

Stamp Printmaking

I wanted my Kindergarten students to get some practice printmaking and was trying to decide which approach would work best. I thought about stamping and decided it would work for the students to make their own stamps. The base for the stamps was a small piece of cardboard. Shapes were cut out of  thin craft foam and glued to the cardboard to dry.

I asked the students to draw a few designs on paper before starting on their foam. This helped some of the students who started drawing lines instead of shapes.  Then the signs were cut out of foam and attached to the cardboard with bottled glue. I asked the students to write their names on the back of the cardboard before gluing then put the stamps on a tray labeled with the class to dry.

I didn't worry about cutting the cardboard to an exact size.

 In the next class period, The students chose a piece of construction paper and printed their stamp with tempera paint. I showed how the stamps could be rotated to make a pattern.

This student used her pencil to draw into her foam.

 I don't have many brayers so the students used flat brushes to "ink" their stamps.  This worked ok, but some had trouble getting the right amount.

Sometimes even on the same paper it's hard to use the right amount!

There's always a question of what to do with students who miss the first day. I had these students use scrap foam pieces to make a design and I used a tiny bit of hot glue to attach the pieces for them so they would have time to print.

 Here are some of the Kindergarten pieces. I totally love them!

 Some of my 2nd graders also tried out making their own stamps. You can definitely see more organization in the design work and printing  by the older students. I think that this process would be appropriate for many grade levels. It would also work to use a bigger piece of cardboard for regular printmaking.

2nd grade stamp examples

CYOA- Clothing and Textile Design

In my last post, I described how my 5th grade students were choosing an area of Fibers to explore (Choose Your Own Adventure). The options were weaving, quilting, and clothing/textile design. There were many options within each of the three categories. Weaving was by far the most popular choice, but I did have quite a few takers on clothing and textile design.

One option, was the clothesline project I've taught a few times. Students paint a sky background then learn to cut and manipulate real fabric to design miniature clothes. You can read about the project on previous blog posts here and here or read the article I wrote for Arts & Activities magazine last December here.

You'll notice a couple differences between this batch of clothes on a clothesline and those from previous years. First, there is a lot more variety in the skies. When I taught the lesson before, I demonstrated how I like to paint clouds and put out the same paint colors at each table. This year since the students had more choices, those working on similar projects sat near each other and together asked me for the certain colors they wanted. It didn't take too long to dispense the paint, and if my pumps weren't prone to clogging and spraying, I would have let the students get their own paint. The second difference is that the overall level of craftsmanship might have been a little lower. Partly because a few, not all, of the girls were more interested in talking and partly because the students were working more independently and making their own choices.

 Another option within clothing and textile design was to create a fabric design on paper, with the idea that it would be pushed further. This option was a little disappointing. I think about 5 students chose this option and they had no sense of urgency. The stamps were created by cutting out foam shapes and gluing on to small pieces of cardboard. I told them that their stamps needed to be finished in the first class period so they would be able to print in the second. Only one student finished creating her stamps the first day and I think she forgot where she put them and had to start over! The other students didn't finish gluing until half way through the second class so they used their extra time to create a second stamp so that they could print in a pattern on the third day. I think what was most frustrating to me is that I know the students were capable of more. I did a stamp making lesson with 2nd grade and even with my Kindergarten students at the same time and the younger students seemed to work harder. I did feel a little better on the last day to see the 5th graders who made stamps at least adding interest with multiple colors. The stamped pattern above is the only one I ended up with a photo of. There were a couple girls adding multiple colors to one stamp to highlight certain shapes and if they had finished, it would have been really cool.

The Choose Your Own Adventure lesson was an experiment. I'm wanting to transition to Teaching for Artistic Behavior but I may have to use a modified approach. I won't know for sure until I get a chance to talk to my principals and until we get our new district standards written. I'm thinking that CYOA could be a happy medium. If it would be a requirement that, for example, students at a certain grade level complete a weaving project, I could whip out menus and the students could still have several choices within that requirement.