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?  

Gond Tribal Art Patterns

"Deep in the forests of Central India, lives a tribe called Gond.  The girls and boys of the Gond tribe learn traditional painting and other crafts at a very young age.  gond painting is done with very bright colors and the basic form is filled with tiny dots an dashes.  Like most of the other tribal paintings, this also used to be done on the mud walls of houses.  Originally, natural colors were used.  The main colors being, deep red (from Al tree), yellow (from leaves), and red(from hibiscus flower). Now, however poster colors are used."  Themes include festivals, myths and folk tales, birds, horses, tigers, fish and others. 

http://www.indianewspost.com/lifestyle/38921-showcase_of_gond_art_to_keep_artist_s_legacy_alive.html 

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/roondeer-nankushiya-jangarh-singh-shyam.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gandara/3446167223/in/photostream/

http://www.tarabooks.com/books/books2/

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.

The Elements of Art

Of all the elements of art, line is the most basic. Line, as an element of art, is the focus of this quick beginning art project. In this lesson we discussed the three attributes of line: direction (vertical, horizontal, diagonal), measure (thick/thin, long/short), and quality (straight, zig zag, curving, looping, wavy, meandering, broken, spiral, etc.). We practiced making a variety of lines and combined lines to create patterns. We put our pattens to use in two special projects. This one, "Wild Hair Day", asks students to create a character with a wild hair do, to divide the design into a variety of shapes, and to fill the shapes with beautiful and carefully drawn line and pattern. The results are pretty amusing and provide plenty of practice for line control and variety. This project was completed by a fifth grade student. Fifth grade line designs are on exhibit on the board near the front entrance to Currier Memorial.
Our Fourth grade students enjoyed a similar lesson, but demonstrated their knowledge of line by completing a line design owl. Their work is in progress but I will post it soon.