Secondary Pumpkin Patches

Happy Halloween all! Here is an example of the pumpkin patch pictures that I made with kindergarten. 

I wanted to review color mixing with my kinders and do something fall related. I thought it would be nice to make pumpkins at night. I gave each table a tray prefilled with two primary colors and gave them a chance to swirl and mix. I love how excited they always get when they make a new color. We mixed and painted the pumpkins first. I took up the orange trays and gave them new trays to mix up green, and then let them mix purple for the night sky. During the next class meeting they drew in lines with black crayon. Then I gave them brown, green and yellow paper to glue in shapes for the stems, leaves, and stars. The paper was pre-painted and came from my scrap bins. They gave a really nice texture to the paintings.

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Color Wheel: Hand Line Design

Color is my favorite element of art! I was trying to think of a way to teach color theory without having to do the same old color wheel, while at the same time covering more elements and principles. I enjoy hand art and came up with this crayon resist hand line design. The students traced their hand three times with only one finger touching another finger on a second hand. Done right, you will end up with six different sections. From there we talked about line, shape, pattern, and variety/visual interest. I instructed them to fill in each section with a different pattern using lines and shapes while showing variety. They all started with pencil so that I could observe and make sure they were all on the right path. 

Next, I showed them how water resists wax and had them trace over all of their pencil lines with black crayon. Lastly, they watercolored in each area in color wheel order. Some got the concept, and others I think got distracted and got out of order. They came out really nice!

Painting with Pre-K: A is for Apple

One of the first projects I did with Pre-K was the Brown Bear assemblage. I really wanted to focus on painting, cutting, and gluing. They came out so nicely that I wanted to continue on the same path. I know that the little ones are working on letters and numbers, so I wanted to base my projects around the alphabet. I didn't think about this until after Brown Bear and decided that this project would be about the letter A.

I showed the students a book about Apples. I talked to them about the seasons and how apples grow. Next, I gave them a piece of paper with the leaves and tree trunk already drawn on it. Last time they only painted with one color. This time they got two. I instructed them to paint the leaves green and the trunk brown. They did so well at painting.

The second class time we focused on cutting more intensely. To start, I gave each student a piece of paper with three black lines on it: strait, curvy, and zig zag. I have a lot of scrap paper around and used it for this activity. The got scissors and were instructed to cut on the black line. Just like with any group of students, some did better than others, but practice makes better!

Next, they cut out the two separate pieces and used small dots to glue them onto light blue paper. Lastly, I gave each student a q-tip and showed them how to add apples to their tree with red paint. They loved this part and got very excited about adding their apples.

Note: be careful how long you let them do this step. They really do love adding apples to their trees, and if your not watchful the pictures can turn into an applepalooza.

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Yay for Pre-K: Brown Bear, Brown Bear

This year I am teaching pre-k art. This is only my second year teaching, but in all of my teaching endeavors  I've never taught an age this young. I have to say I was a touch worried as to how our time together was going to go. I envisioned paint splattered walls, glue in hair, and ruined paint brushes. That is not at all what happened. The class is calm and I have wonderful kids who love to create and are eager to learn.

Our most recent project was an assemblage based on the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr and Eric Carle.

I collaborated with their teacher and found out that they focus on one book each week and this was one of the books. I wanted to focus on a lesson that encompassed painting, cutting, and gluing. I printed a circle and two ear shapes on card stock. The first class I gave them their papers and instructed them to paint inside their shapes trying to stay within the lines.

Let me note here that all through my education of art ed I was highly against templates and tracing. As time has gone by I have become more open to it. I don't think they should be used all the time. I do however find that there is less frustration from the students and less time consumed on elements that aren't part of the lesson objectives. There is also somewhat of an insurance that the art will come out looking as intended and not just a big blob.

The next time we met they cut out the shapes and assembled them onto a black piece of paper. We counted out ten small dots for the face and three small dots for the ears. Next, they glued down google eyes. Again, like with templates and tracing, I don't always use google eyes. Sometimes the project just calls for it though. They used black crayon to add the nose and mouth. Lastly we worked on letters and spelling the word brown.

I really like how they came out. We need to keep working on the glue, but I think these look awesome for pre-k.

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