"KindergARTen" - an Introduction to the Elements
A terrific introduction point for new artists, and the basis for almost all of the great works of art, are the Elements of Art. The Elements of Art are used together to develop an interesting composition, but first must be introduced and understood before being developed. We will spend our 1st Quarter together learning the eight Elements of Art. The eight elements are: Line, Color, Shape, Form, Texture, Contrast, Value and Space. Ask your student which element they learned about this week and how we've used it in our class together?
"House-Tree-Person" - Initial Drawings [Week 1]
As Kindergarteners enter their first week of school, they all enter at different points in their educational journey. Through this activity, with its focus in art therapy, the students are asked a series of questions based on their own personal experiences. The students are asked, "What does your home look like?," "Who lives with you in your home?," and "Will you draw me a picture of a tree?" After these questions are asked, the students are allowed to "draw anything else you would like to share about yourself" to introduce themselves to their new art teacher!
"House-Tree-Person" - Examples
"What Color Do You Feel?" - Color [Week 2]
This week, the Kindergarteners took a look at color and how it might feel to be a certain color. We read our friend Dr. Seuss' classic tale, My Many Colored Days and saw how many colors feel. Whether it was busy like a buzzy yellow bee, cool and quiet like a green fish in the river (complete with fish faces), or lazy like a sleeping brown bear, we found out that certain colors can show us different things and act a certain way!
Ask your Kindergartener what kind of color day they had today and ask them to show you what it looks like to feel that color!
Ask your Kindergartener what kind of color day they had today and ask them to show you what it looks like to feel that color!
"Have You Seen Roy? - Color/Shape [Week 3]
This week, our students met the boy who lives in the rainbow, Roy G. Biv. He's a funny little chap who often appears when a rainy day meets a sunny day and he teaches us about different colors. The students read Planting a Rainbow, written by Lois Ehlert, to see how rainbows can be found all around us and then learned a song from Mr. Ray about our new friend, Roy G. Biv.
Ask your student to sing "I Know a Boy Named Roy G. Biv" to you, or follow the video below and learn the words, so that you can sing the song together. WARNING: It is a mighty catchy tune.
Ask your student to sing "I Know a Boy Named Roy G. Biv" to you, or follow the video below and learn the words, so that you can sing the song together. WARNING: It is a mighty catchy tune.
The Giving Tree - Shape/Form [Week 4]
Shel Silverstein's classic tale was our starting point in this week's lesson. Using the vast reaches of the Internet, we found an animated version of this tale, read by Shel Silverstein himself! We watched him narrate a heart-warming tale about a tree who loved a boy and how she wanted to give him everything she could.
Using scissors and glue for the first time in the Art Room, we learned about "rounding corners, mountain cuts and valley cuts" to make our shapes. We learned how to apply glue by saying to ourselves, "a little dab'll do ya," and more importantly, "Dot, Dot, Not a Lot!" By using our new skills, we were able to construct an apple of our own, that like the Giving Tree, we could give our artistic apples to someone we love very much!
Ask your students what the tree gave to the little boy in our story, and more importantly, what the boy gave to the tree! I hope you now have a lovely apple of your own to hang with pride.
Using scissors and glue for the first time in the Art Room, we learned about "rounding corners, mountain cuts and valley cuts" to make our shapes. We learned how to apply glue by saying to ourselves, "a little dab'll do ya," and more importantly, "Dot, Dot, Not a Lot!" By using our new skills, we were able to construct an apple of our own, that like the Giving Tree, we could give our artistic apples to someone we love very much!
Ask your students what the tree gave to the little boy in our story, and more importantly, what the boy gave to the tree! I hope you now have a lovely apple of your own to hang with pride.
How I Became A Pirate - Space [Week 5/6]
This week we started to take a look at the element of "space." Meeting in each of the Kindergarten classrooms, we were able to look at the places and the things in our classrooms and how they fit together with each other. We started to talk about map making, in order to show things, as they fit in relationship to other things, in our classroom... and who knows more about making maps than those scalywags and scurvy dogs of the high seas? PIRATES!
Looking at the humorous stories of Jeremy Jacob and the Captain Braidbeard for reference, we set out to make our own classroom map, complete with a "bird's eye view" of our room.
We learned to practice our skills first, making a "sloppy copy" of our map during our first week of map-making, then we refined our skills by adding more details to our final copy, that we could use during our Project Celebration. We even got to use Final Copy Paper, a thick brown sheet, so we could make our maps as authentic as the maps used by the sailors of the high seas!
We learned to practice our skills first, making a "sloppy copy" of our map during our first week of map-making, then we refined our skills by adding more details to our final copy, that we could use during our Project Celebration. We even got to use Final Copy Paper, a thick brown sheet, so we could make our maps as authentic as the maps used by the sailors of the high seas!
Life Doesn't Frighten Me - Contrast [Week 7]
While this time of year can be a time for tricks and treats, in the art room we learned that sometimes the scariest thing of all can be our own imaginations! We read Maya Angelou's story, Life Doesn't Frighten Me, and discussed how sometimes just sharing our fears can make them seem a little less scary, but drawing them out with chalk just makes them seem silly!
The students and I drew out our fears and shared them with each other. We used bright chalk on a very dark piece of paper to show contrast between the two and sharing our fears with our very supportive classmates made us realize that we may not be the only one with those fears!
Share your fear with your Kindergartener and ask them to tell you their fear. Give each other encouragement by saying, "that doesn't frighten me at all. Not at all, not at all!"
The students and I drew out our fears and shared them with each other. We used bright chalk on a very dark piece of paper to show contrast between the two and sharing our fears with our very supportive classmates made us realize that we may not be the only one with those fears!
Share your fear with your Kindergartener and ask them to tell you their fear. Give each other encouragement by saying, "that doesn't frighten me at all. Not at all, not at all!"
The Skeleton Dance - Contrast/Texture [Week 8/9]
This week's lesson coincided with a very spooky holiday and continued our look at contrast using bright colored chalk on a dark piece of construction paper.
We took a look at Bob Barber's version of Dem Bones and learned the Skeleton Dance to learn how our bones connected. We took chalk and mapped out our bones on the page before moving on to the second step.
We took a look at Bob Barber's version of Dem Bones and learned the Skeleton Dance to learn how our bones connected. We took chalk and mapped out our bones on the page before moving on to the second step.