The kindergarten students are currently working on drawing ocean creatures and then cutting them out and pasting them on painted backgrounds they made. We started out by reading a pop-up book about ocean creatures. Each student got a book of ocean creatures to look at for inspiration and as a visual reference. I showed them how to create a contour line drawing and then how to thoughtfully shade in their drawings. We reviewed how detail usually makes your drawings more interesting and unique. The students practiced drawing ocean creatures first before they started on their final pieces. For their final piece, they learned how to cover more area with color on their paper by rolling blue crayons on their sides for their ocean backgrounds. They then drew their ocean creatures and shaded them with colored pencils. They had to create a minimum of five ocean creatures. I will be posting pictures soon.
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The following are just a few of my favorite books that I have read to the kindergarteners this trimester. These books have helped me teach various lessons that apply to art-making. This was kindergarten's first project of the school year. I didn't post it at the time, so I thought I would post it now. We read a book about line. We looked at various types of line and the students were asked to draw as many different types of line as possible. They learned about the artist Kandinsky and how he claimed that he could see music in the form of shapes, lines, and colors. The students then listened to music while they created a crayon resist with different types of shape, line, and color inspired by music.
For this project, our kinders learned about the artist Georgia O'Keefe. We looked at many different images of her paintings and looked at pictures of different types of flowers. The students then created their own flowers using a variety of materials such as tissue paper, construction paper, and crayons. Some students created flowers close up like Georgia O'Keefe while others created multiple flowers from far away. We have been doing a lot of cutting with scissors this trimester to assist the kinders in developing their fine motor control.
The following pictures are the finished clay pinch pots and texture hand slabs that kindergarten painted today.
We started this lesson out by reading the book titled Henri's Scissors, which is about the artist Henri Matisse and his paintings and paper collages. The students learned the difference between geometric and organic shapes by looking at images and identifying the difference between them. I then did a demonstration on how to draw shapes to use as a guide to cut out and use in order to create various elements in a landscape. I also showed the students how to use a circle stencil. The students were then asked to create a landscape scene by using both geometric and organic shapes.
The kindergarteners recently completed a lesson on texture by learning the difference between visual texture and actual texture. They felt and described the texture of things around the room and we came up with a variety of words to describe how something feels. Afterwards, we traced their hands on a slab of clay and cut them out. The students were then asked to create actual texture on their clay hands. For the second part of the lesson on another day, we read the book titled Where the Wild Things Are and they were asked to point out and describe the visual texture on the monsters on each page. They were then asked to design their own monster using visual texture to show how the different parts of the monster feels. They were asked to come up with a name and purpose for their monster too.
The kindergartners just created their first project out of clay. I started the lesson by asking the students if they knew where clay comes from and a few knew that it comes from the ground. I explained a little bit more about how clay used to be a hard rock, and when water and acid break down a specific type of rock that it becomes clay. Next we discussed what a kiln is and how we can make things out of clay and fire it in a kiln to make it hard. I then showed them how to make a pinch pot and they understood that it is called a pinch pot because you use a pinching motion to create it. It was then their turn to create a pinch pot. They all created their pots and they will be painting them with tempera paint after they have been fired. We will talk about ceramic glaze this year, but they will not be introduced to the glazing process until 1st grade. Their pots need to become what we call bone dry before we can fire them. The clay must be dry and hard before a firing or else the moisture makes it more prone to blow up in the kiln. My kiln is not currently hooked up yet, but it should be soon! I will post pictures of their creations after they have been fired and painted.
This week the kindergarten students learned that if you mix primary colors you can make secondary colors. We started out by reading the book Mouse Paint pictured below. The finger puppet named Squeakers read it to them. I then demonstrated how to mix primaries to create secondary colors. The students then received paint to mix their colors with. The goal was to make each secondary color. They mixed their colors and then drew mice that were glued onto their paintings after they dried. After that, the students colored circles of primary colors and the secondary colors that they create. I then quizzed them while they were lining up to see if they could remember which primary color combinations make each secondary color.
Last week the kindergarteners learned about pattern by looking at birds that had a wide variety of pattern on them, and by creating a bird with pattern itself. They learned about the artist and conservationist John James Audubon by looking at his drawings of birds. The students discovered that their are many different ways to draw birds by watching a demonstration and looking at different kinds of birds. They then got to work making a mixed media piece that used pastel, marker, and construction paper to create a bird and a nest. Many of the students were using oil pastel for the first time, so we discussed how they are different than crayons. The kids loved how smooth and creamy the oil pastels are. I used a finger puppet named Tweet-tweet to teach them about birds and pattern. They fell in love with Tweet-tweet and are now excited to see her eggs hatch. Take a look at some of the kids creations below.
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AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
May 2017
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