Reindeer for Kinders

Are you looking for an easy lesson you can do today?  I L-O-V-E these kindergarten interpretations of a guided drawing lesson found at Artventerous and the kiddies loved it two.

What is your current favorite winter time art lesson?

Kindergarten Name Design

Here's a little assessment I'm using with my Kindergartners this year.  It's a name design and it will make a sweet addition to their hallway.  The skills I teach and assess in this project are:

• Holding scissors with fingers in the large hole and thumb on top.
• Passing scissor do a partner with blades closed in fistwith the point facing down
• Cutting small squares from a strip using a guideline
• Cutting small squares from a strip without a guideline
• Opening and closing a glue bottle
• Controlling glue bottle to produce a drop of glue

We're also reviewing primary colors and building fine motor skills.  

On day two I'll put out some sequins for students to place between their paper squares.  

These skills seem pretty basic, but believe it or not I've had fourth graders hand me a glue bottle and say it's not working because they hadn't opened it.  Yikes.  Not to mention the strange affinity children sometimes have with copious amounts of glue.  Maybe I need to repeat this lesson with some fourth graders this year?  At any rate these kids know how to open the glue bottle, close it when finished and use a reasonable amount of glue! Yay!

Little bottles for little hands.

Holiday Tree Quickie

We made these holiday trees today in the art room and the kids were so excited.  I used this plan for kindergarten, first, and pre-school and all levels were able to do them in one sitting with time left over for a holiday story.  First graders started their tree by drawing a big triangle then filling in with the side of a chalk pastel.  The idea is to get a little color on the page.  We blended the chalk with a tissue to soften the color.  Next, we added evergreen branches by stamping with the the edge of a small piece of cardboard.  When the branches were done the pastels and green paint was picked up and kids were given a palette with red, green, and blue paint.  They used one finger to dot on the lights and decorations.

Here's what I learned in doing this project....almost everyone wanted a star on top of their tree, so for the second class I had yellow pastels ready and we added that detail right from the get go.

Also...the project got a bit messy with the first kindergarten class. Chalk everywhere.  For the second class we used crayons to color the big green triangle, and the star.  We stamped as usual, but skipped the finger dotting.  They added decorations with the eraser end of a new pencil.  

For my pre-schoolers I drew the big triangle for them and they colored it in with crayons, stamped, and dotted.   Everything done in on session and ready to hang on the fridge for the holiday.

This lesson was inspired by the amazing blog Creativity First.  Check it out here.

Rainbow Papers and a Musical Question

Today kindergarten used cake temperas to made these rainbow papers.  We're saving these papers for a special project that we'll start next week.  Kids referenced the color wheel to get the colors in the correct order and really enjoyed making their beautiful papers.  After clean-up,  some students continued to "rainbow" with crayons and on their free draw papers.  Then we gathered on the rug to watch "I See a Song", the Eric Carle Video.

One little girl looked and asked "Is that Tchaikovsky?"

Me:  "How do you know about Tchaikovsky?"

Her:  "Swan Lake"

I checked the credits, but the music is not listed.  Does anyone know what piece this is?  Has anyone else noticed that kindergartners are way smarter than they used to be?  

"Wild Thing....

....You make my heart sing."

Kindergartners continue to use simple shapes to build complex creatures like these monsters inspired by Maurice Sendak's children's classic "Where the Wild Things Are", a childhood "must read".

Kindergarten Stuffed Owls

Kindergartners built these colorful owls last week.  Students made the body by tracing around a template  They then used their crayons to draw in additional details to personalize their owls.  We are learning how to combine simple shapes and lines to create complex imagery.  Students created texture on their owls by adding  lines and patterns.  Look at the beautiful patterning on this little guy!
We are practicing watercolor techniques, brush control, and learning to care for our materials.
After our owls were dry they were stapled to a backing paper (colorful craft paper from the roll) and cut out.  We stuffed them with paper from the paper shredder and added a loop of yarn for hanging.
Note to self:  shredded paper + kindergarten = big mess.  If you do this, bring a broom.
Next time:  crumpled paper from the recycle bin or project leftovers.

Kindergarten Leaf Garland

Here's an old standby with a new twist.  This project is always a big hit with the little ones and is also my kindergartners first introduction to collage. This year we were given a HUGE bag of pre-cut tissue paper strips in  all the colors of the rainbow and we put them to good use.
To make their leaf kids drew or traced a leaf shape on a piece of white or colored paper.  They chose six strips of tissue and tore them into smaller pieces to get them ready for their collage (easier to do when hands are dry).  They brushed a little liquid starch onto their paper added some tissue colors and painted over the top to smooth the papers down.  We used the "Dip, dip, wipe" chant to encourage good brush handling and prevent glue from dripping on table tops.  After the leaves dried they carefully cut them out.

I love the leaves, but wasn't in love with how they looked pinned on the board so this year I brought them home and ran them through the sewing machine pulling the thread to form a "spacer" between each additional leaf.  Now we have a beautiful leaf garland ready for draping or hanging from the ceiling.
There are lots of wonderful children's books to pair this project with.  This year we read "Fall Leaves Fall" by Zoe Hall, "Have You Seen Trees" by Joanne Oppenheirm, and "Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf" by Lois Elhert.
My garland is in one very long string right now.  I'll probably snip it into smaller sections and hang it in front of windows.  When we're done displaying I'll snip and add a paper clip hanger so each child can take home their single hanging leaf.
Have a great day!

Kindergarten Assessment

When September comes I can't wait to meet all my new kindergartners and start learning names.  We meet just once a week for art and sometimes it takes me a while to learn all the names.  It takes even longer to figure out who can do what.  But, last year I came across a quick art project that is also a helpful assessment tool.  It uses the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" by Bill Martin and Eric Carle.  I'm re-posting today because as the year unfolded, I was amazed to see how helpful this assessment was in capturing important information about my students.
I found this assessment idea on a sight called Kinderkorner.  It is now my first day of kindergarten standard. If you don't have the book "Brown Bear", no worries.  It's also on You tube.
To see the assessment in detail you can click here.
So that's it for me, but what about you?
What's your first day of kindergarten lesson plan looking like this year?
Have a great day!

Kinder-Koi

Pre-Cut fish with lots of add-ons.

Kindergarten Trees and Stars

Not only did kindergartners get to put their newly learned star making skills to the test on this lovely large scale work featuring stars, snow, and pines; they also learned how to fold and cut papers to make  symmetrical shapes.  They designed their tree using that fabulous zig zag line that we practiced earlier in the year, touching the fold only at the start and finish of their line.  After the trees were cut in the cutting station, the stems were glued on at the gluing station, and kids circulated into the painting station for a little sponge painting action.
Painting, as opposed to drawing a star was a new challenge for Kinder artists and the sky is lit up with a lopsided charm.  After attaching their trees, kids dotted on snow with the back end of a pencil.  Well done Kindergarten!

Kindergarten Jungle Snakes

Fourth graders watched the little owl video today and are really excited to start making movies.  In the mean while kindergarten put the finishing touches on their pattern snakes today.  To complete this project they patterned with crayon, water colored both sides of their snake and designed a leafy jungle where their snake would live.  To create their habitat kindergartners painted leaves using green paint on green paper.  We really tried to fill up the page.

Finally, kindergartners created a darker value by mixing black into their green paint.  We wanted to create a lot of shady places for that snake to hide.  The snake was then stapled on and the whole thing matted on black paper.  Lots of fine motor work in this project.  Good work kindergarten!

Kindergarten Pattern Snakes

Here's another pattern project.  This is so simple, but my kindergartner's love making these snakes so much that the always request making them again in first grade.  We share with each other what we know about patterns and look at lots of examples.  Kids learn that patterns repeat and that they are predictable (we can usually guess what comes next).  Then they choose the patterns that they want to decorate their snake.  We used crayons first and then water colored to create a resist.  The hardest part about making the snakes is waiting for the paint to dry, because the real fun is in cutting them out.   First, we cut carefully around the outside, and then make the long spiral cut around the inside.
Sometimes we hang them from the ceiling, but often kids beg to take them home right away.  This year we're going to try something a little different.  (If they'll let me).

I'll let you know how it goes.

Kindergarten Makes Beaded Butterflies

This is the final project of our five week construction and assemblage unit for kindergarten. We built paper sculptures, paper hats, cardboard constructions, and lastly, these little guys. Little hands had plenty of practice cutting, snipping, gluing and attaching. Could look cute on a holiday tree.