Kindergarten
Lesson 1: Lines of All kinds
Project: Take a Line for a Walk
First we listened to a story called Harold and The Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson. We discovered that Harold drew lines with his purple crayon in order to create pictures that illustrated his story. After talking about several types of lines, we picked our favorite ones and took our black crayon for a walk across our paper. The directions that the zigzag, curvy, and curly lines took indicated movement. Music and dancing creates movement too! We then listened to different types of music and took a white crayon for a dance across our paper as if it was moving to the music.
Something was missing. We searched a painting called Bustling Aquarelle by Wassily Kandinsky in order to find what our drawings were missing. Of course! We were missing COLOR! We talked about all different kinds of colors and what kinds of emotions they remind us of. Students then filled in open areas between their black lines with watercolor paint. Many of us found that our dancing white lines appeared like magic!
Project: Take a Line for a Walk
First we listened to a story called Harold and The Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson. We discovered that Harold drew lines with his purple crayon in order to create pictures that illustrated his story. After talking about several types of lines, we picked our favorite ones and took our black crayon for a walk across our paper. The directions that the zigzag, curvy, and curly lines took indicated movement. Music and dancing creates movement too! We then listened to different types of music and took a white crayon for a dance across our paper as if it was moving to the music.
Something was missing. We searched a painting called Bustling Aquarelle by Wassily Kandinsky in order to find what our drawings were missing. Of course! We were missing COLOR! We talked about all different kinds of colors and what kinds of emotions they remind us of. Students then filled in open areas between their black lines with watercolor paint. Many of us found that our dancing white lines appeared like magic!
Lesson 2: Falling Leaves
Project: Mixed media fall landscape
After reading The Falling Leaves and the Scarecrow by Steve Metzger, students created a fall landscape scene using crayons, cut construction paper and torn tissue paper. Kindergarteners followed direct instructions on how to create a background that included three hills, each of which had a different texture (woods, corn field, & grass.) Then we cut out the trunk and branches for our trees from construction paper and practiced proper cutting and gluing techniques to complete this step. We discussed the types of trees we see in Sterling as well as fall color schemes before deciding what color tissue paper to use to create leafy textures on our pieces. Once completed, some students chose to add additional elements such as barns, clouds and sunshine. We discovered that when things are far away from us they appear smaller.
Lesson 3: Shapes & Cutting
Project: Paper Turkeys
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we created paper turkeys. We practiced drawing our circles, starting at the top and ending at the same place on the paper. Once we felt good and ready, we drew a big circle for our turkey's body and a small one for our turkey's head on brown construction paper and cut them out, being careful to stay on the lines and not rush! Then we glued them down, leaving the edges free to slide our feathers in behind the body. In order to create feathers, we traced our hands, staying nice and close to our fingers, then cut them out and glued them in place behind the bodies. After that we added the rest of the details, cutting small circles for eyes, rainbow shapes for waddles, skinny rectangles for legs, and triangles for beaks. Our turkeys really took on personalities of their own.... We also worked on our best gobbling and turkey calling skills!
Lesson 4: Snowmen at Night
Project: Storytelling through illustration
We have a read a few story books in art class, but after reading Snowmen At Night by Caralyn and Mark Buehner, we realized that the Author (Caralyn) doesn't have the only important job. Mark, the illustrator, also plays a very important role in creating the story book. Pictures are worth 1000 words. Pictures, especially for young children, really tell the story and bring it to life.
The snowmen in the book we read traveled out of their yards at night to do all sorts of fun snowmen activities. Students recreated the book and thought of all sorts of different activities for snowmen to do in their illustrations. We had lots of laughs when thinking of these ideas; students drew pictures of snowmen doing everything from driving plow trucks and excavators to snowmobiling and playing dress-up.
Take a moment to let a kindergartener "read" you their story book. It's sure to put a smile on your face :)
Project: Storytelling through illustration
We have a read a few story books in art class, but after reading Snowmen At Night by Caralyn and Mark Buehner, we realized that the Author (Caralyn) doesn't have the only important job. Mark, the illustrator, also plays a very important role in creating the story book. Pictures are worth 1000 words. Pictures, especially for young children, really tell the story and bring it to life.
The snowmen in the book we read traveled out of their yards at night to do all sorts of fun snowmen activities. Students recreated the book and thought of all sorts of different activities for snowmen to do in their illustrations. We had lots of laughs when thinking of these ideas; students drew pictures of snowmen doing everything from driving plow trucks and excavators to snowmobiling and playing dress-up.
Take a moment to let a kindergartener "read" you their story book. It's sure to put a smile on your face :)
Lesson 5: Artist Study - Dale Chihuly
Project: Faux blown glass coffee filter cups
We took a look at the work of glass sculptor Dale Chihuly. Chihuly's work can be seen right here in Connecticut at Mohegan Sun! His beautiful large scale sculptures feature a variety of organic forms and vibrant colors, which are often illuminated, creating quite the viewing experience.
Since we discovered how dangerous it is to work with molten glass, we decided that it would be a good idea to create a similar look by using coffee filters, water based markers and spray starch. The result is a bowl that is a cup that is not only aesthetically pleasing, but functional as well - great for holding little treasures.
Project: Faux blown glass coffee filter cups
We took a look at the work of glass sculptor Dale Chihuly. Chihuly's work can be seen right here in Connecticut at Mohegan Sun! His beautiful large scale sculptures feature a variety of organic forms and vibrant colors, which are often illuminated, creating quite the viewing experience.
Since we discovered how dangerous it is to work with molten glass, we decided that it would be a good idea to create a similar look by using coffee filters, water based markers and spray starch. The result is a bowl that is a cup that is not only aesthetically pleasing, but functional as well - great for holding little treasures.
Lesson 6: Pattern
Project: Crayon Resist Eggs
During a responding session on Ukrainian eggs, students noticed that the eggs were decorated with a complex network of shapes, colors, lines, and patterns. Together we created pattern sentences on the board, starting from simple two-part patterns (ABAB) and working up to four-part patterns (ABCDABCD). Students then traced and cut out an egg shape, applied crayon for line/shape/color patterns, and finished by adding a watercolor wash over the whole piece.
Project: Crayon Resist Eggs
During a responding session on Ukrainian eggs, students noticed that the eggs were decorated with a complex network of shapes, colors, lines, and patterns. Together we created pattern sentences on the board, starting from simple two-part patterns (ABAB) and working up to four-part patterns (ABCDABCD). Students then traced and cut out an egg shape, applied crayon for line/shape/color patterns, and finished by adding a watercolor wash over the whole piece.
Lesson 7: Storybook Study - Eric Carle
Project: Textured Cut Paper Flowers
Together we read Eric Carle's The Tiny Seed. While following the tiny seed's journey to becoming a flower, we not only learned how plants grow, but we also studied Carle's unique artistic style. In order to create our own flowers, we began by fingerpainting white paper with the colors we observed in specific areas of the illustrations from the book. Once the paintings were dry, we traced and cut out all the pieces we needed for our pictures. We finished by carefully planning out our compositions and gluing all the pieces into place.
Project: Textured Cut Paper Flowers
Together we read Eric Carle's The Tiny Seed. While following the tiny seed's journey to becoming a flower, we not only learned how plants grow, but we also studied Carle's unique artistic style. In order to create our own flowers, we began by fingerpainting white paper with the colors we observed in specific areas of the illustrations from the book. Once the paintings were dry, we traced and cut out all the pieces we needed for our pictures. We finished by carefully planning out our compositions and gluing all the pieces into place.