School-wide art show

I know I haven't blogged in a while, my friend Ted (www.artwithmre.blogspot) has been bugging and bugging me about it, but I have been very busy and a little forgetful! Anyways, now that some big things have been taken off of my plate, now I have time to post some pictures. One of the major things that I was dealing with was a school-wide art show. There are two art teachers here at my school, but with almost 900 students, this is still a lot of work. Most of my classes displayed their prints, but the kindergarteners displayed their bugs, and the third graders had photo collages up.

                    

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!

Texture Hamburgers

While browsing on Pinterest, I came across a fantastic idea found here http://kidsartists.blogspot.com/2009/10/texture-balance-and-variety-were.html

I thought this project was great, and filed it away until I found the right time and grade level to do it with. Finally, it was the right time. This 9 weeks, the kindergarteners have been working on textures. We have talked about both tactile and visual textures, and worked with crayon rubbings, and clay that we pressed textures into. I finally decided to pull this project out, although I did change it slightly. The project above revolved around both the favorite foods of the students as well as the texture, but I wanted my students to focus on just the texture aspect of the project. So I went through all of my cupboards and pulled out all sorts of goodies.

I had some dries split peas, cheerios, fuzzy yarn, some plastic "beads" (not really beads, but not sure what they really are, they were donated), rope, crepe paper, paper crinkles, beads, bubble wrap, and a product called Plox, which I had ordered last year from Dick Blick, and hadn't done anything with yet. Plox is a finely shredded paper product for collages, the kids loved it. I put all of the supplies on an empty table, gave the students empty cups to carry their supplies in, as well as the paper "buns" and brown construction paper. Then I let them go at it. It was slightly messy, but the kids were very excited, and when some of the students told their teachers what they were doing, I had one teacher show up to make her own!

Now that my supply of "goodies" has been depleted, I will need to start saving for next year, since I am definitely doing this project again. It really pushed the concept of texture home with the students.

Kindergarten line sculptures

The kindergarten curriculum for this 9 weeks calls for a paper sculpture... which is a perfect time to review lines. The students learned how to make all kinds of lines and glued them to a base. They were so pleased with them, and begged me to let them take them home right then. Of course I let them (I didn't tell them that I didn't have room to store them...hee hee).

Kindergarten Pout Pout Fish

My kindergarteners love the book The Pout Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen.

The kindergarteners love it so much that they practically have the book memorized. Since they love the book so, I decided to incorporate this into their art show. The students created their own version of a pout pout fish using crayons. After they were finished, they placed tissue paper squares on top, and then brushed water over the tissue. Once the tissue paper was dry, the squares dropped off, leaving a "watercolor" like painting behind.

Check out those pout pout lips!

Paper Pulp Ornaments

I don't know about you, but every year, my scrap paper box gets really full, too full in fact, and eventually I resort to throwing some away so that it doesn't overflow. Last year I came up with a great lesson that uses up lots of the scraps, keeping me from throwing it away. I had my kindergarteners create paper pulp ornaments.

We took the paper and separated it by color, and then ripped the paper into little pieces. Next, we soaked the paper in water overnight, and then ran it through a blender. Once it was pulped, we used cookie cutters as molds to create the ornaments. with the cookie cutters laying on a towel, the students piled the pulp into the middle, forming whatever patterns or designs they wanted. Next, we used sponges to press the pulp together and soak up as much water as we could. After poking a hole in the ornament, we put the still-wet pulp on the heater to dry overnight. You can add peppermint oil to to the pulp before the students use it if you would like. This helps in two ways. The first is obvious, it makes the ornament smell good, the second benefit of this is that it helps retard molding of the wet paper pulp if you need to store if for more than a few days.

Very Hungry Caterpillars

This is a lesson that I like to do with my Kindergartners. I read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. After reading the book, the students are given pieces of tissue paper that are cut into ovals, and a piece of 12x18 paper. I have the student use a crayon to write their name and draw a slightly wavy line in the middle of their paper. Then they use liquid starch to collage their tissue paper ovals on the line, making sure that they overlap the ovals. After the papers dry, the students use crayons to add features to the caterpillar (including feet) and a grass line to the ground. These look great going up and down the halls!

Kindergarten Calico Cats

This is one of my favorite lessons to do with my kindergartners. It is a tissue paper collage with a painted outline. I give each student a 9x12 and a 12x18 piece of paper. Using crayons, I show the students how to draw a body using a large oval, and then add legs and a tail onto it. Then I show them to draw a cat's hear by drawing a circle and adding triangle ears, football shaped eyes, triangle nose and whiskers. Next, the students use black tempera paint to over their crayon lines, and then we let them dry. The next time the students come to art, they are given liquid starch and tissue paper squares. They brush the liquid starch onto the cat, and place the tissue paper onto the starch. Then they brush more starch onto the tissue paper to seal it. I talk to the students about overlapping the tissue paper, and give them time to work. After the cats dry, we cut them out and glue the heads onto the bodies. For a little bit of sparkle, try adding Crayola Glitter It! mixing medium into the starch. The students love this because then their cats are glittery.

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.

Kindergarten Collage Houses

Kindergartners are very challenging. This is their first exposure to art supplies, and how to use them correctly. One of the lessons that I like do do with them is shape landscapes. This is a great lesson that covers shapes, scissor safety, and how to use glue correctly.

I start by talking about the correct way to use scissors, then I start giving them pieces of construction paper, one piece at a time, and have them cut different shapes (red square, yellow circle, yellow rectangles, brown triangle, brown rectangles, random green shape, and long wavy green shape.) Then I give them a 9x12 piece of blue paper and show them how we can put the shapes together to create a landscape (at this point I teach them the vocabulary word landscape). I also teach the children to use one dot of glue (one dot, not a lot). This project looks great put together and the students love them.