Kindergarten is going buggy!

We had the last art show of the year tonight, and it was kindergarten's turn. I figured since all of the students are starting to get antsy, we should make some bugs. They had a blast, and the parents were very pleased. Even the teachers have been commenting about the bright and cheerful pests (I of course mean the art bugs, not the children!) We created the bugs by folding a 9x12 piece of paper in half, and the the students picked three colors to add to their paper, making sure that they picked colors adjacent to each other on the color wheel. Once we added the tempera paint we re-folded the papers and then opened them to dry. The next class time we cut out around the paint, and then added heads, legs, and wiggle eyes. My older students were so jealous!

Bulletin Board Time!

It's back to school time, and I have been very busy in the art room. This year, I decided to change my class theme to a garden and bug theme, so the following two boards were born. The first board is my behavior board. Each pocket corresponds with a seat in my classroom. In the pockets are card that can be pulled based on the behavior or each individual student. It is located next to the door, so as each classroom teacher comes to pick up their class, they can easily see if any students have misbehaved.

The second board is located outside my classroom door. I decided to add quotes about art, in hopes that it would give classes something to discuss and think about while waiting in the hallway.

I am currently working on two more boards, one of which is a No-No board and the other is about the elements of art and principles of design. I will post pictures when finished.

Getting buggy in the art room

My second graders finished their required curriculum early, so we decided that we wanted to paint. I decided to have them create a oil pastel resist. We started out by drawing with pencil a large bug of their choice (it could be imaginary) sitting on a flower. Then we outlined with black oil pastels. Next they added some other details with white oil pastel. Finally they painted with watercolors. Some of the classes used Prang watercolors, others used liquid watercolors (I like how bright the colors can be with the liquid watercolors, since they are concentrated)

Help for wishing4one

I have been asked for some inexpensive, fun projects for kindergartners by wishing4one. I hope you come back and see this blog. I have a lot of ideas.....for example...I like to read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle and then give the children tissue paper ovals that they can overlap to create their own caterpillar. Then there is a story quilt. I read them an appropriate story, and the class splits the story up into sections, one per student, which they draw on 6" square papers. Then the pieces are "stitched" together by punching holes in the corners and tying the squares together with yarn. You can also get cardboard and have the students take glue and draw a picture on the cardboard with the glue. After the glue is dry, you can brush paint over the glue and print the cardboard on other paper. I also like to take paper and fold it in half, then open the paper and drip a couple paint colors on the paper, fold the paper in half again, then open it and let it dry. After it is dry, the students can add legs and eyes and cut it out to create a cool looking bug.

These are just a few lessons that I do with my Kindergartners, but stay tuned for more, including the calico cats that will be posted this week. Wishing4one...I hope this helps you, if not, let me know and I will try some other things.