Meowing at Midnight: Kindergarten Edition

Kindergarteners sure loved this lesson.  We were inspired by this print by Nick Gustafson.  I mean WHO DOESN'T like a cat with crazy patterns? But really, the kiddos were more concerned that the moon was yellow and not silvery gray.  With that we got a impromptu lesson on moon phases and the harvest moon.  But aren't these guys cute?

Disclaimer: No cat tails were harmed in the making of this project.  Seriously--those are some tricky shapes to cut around and maybe 2 lost their tails.  I'll take that any day.  Maybe our cutting endurance is paying off? 

To go along with the lesson we read Cat's Night Out, it's filled with rhyming wonderfuls and counting by twos. 

If Kindergarten Portraits Could Talk

Let me begin by saying Kindergarten self portraits are the best.  Not only is it fun and funny to see what the kids make, but I'm always super impressed with the final product.  If you want to know more about the process go here or here.  

While kindergarteners are drawing their self portraits the most common comment I hear behind the giggles is "Ugh, this looks creepy!"  But isn't it funny how their drawings always seem to resemble them in some way?

So in this edition of portraits I present to you: 

If Kindergarten Self Portraits Could Talk

The Mom's and Dad's:

These are pretty amazing for kindergarteners, right??! But I mean this is a sophisticated looking group. They are so put together, hair groomed, make-up faces on, and I think we might even have some freshly pressed shirts.  I know I'm only 25, but geesh these guys look like they've surpassed me in years!

The "I Have Bugs for Eyes" Kindergarteners:

Am I the only one who sees creepy, crawly insect legs coming from around their eyes?

The "Please I'm Still a Kid" Kindergarteners

These guys here are the kiddos I've come to know and probably just think I'm crazy.  But whatevs, if you're still going to be a kid, why can't I? I WANT TO BE A KID TOO (insert whiny voice here).

The Outakes:

I like to call this group the "things that don't quite go as planned."  I know we all have some bad hair days, but the top two are making me think I need to start providing combs in the art room.  And yo bro, lay off the candy...oh those are just baby teeth? Well then eat way.  Rainbow lips--where can I get me some of those?

He's Picasso and he doesn't even know it.

Hey girl, what kind of eyeliner do you use?  That looks like the good stuff.  You know the kind that looks like a sharpie marker and you never have to re-apply. Oh, it is sharpie--well then, just do your thing girl.

Kindergarten Gets heARTsy

What would Valentine's Day be without a little lesson about Jim Dine?  Jim Dine: I know you're out there, here's my question for you--"Do you love or hate that you've become the iconic artist that most art teachers (elementary) love talking about right around February?"  Really though...I wonder.  I searched for Jim Dine on twitter, no such luck, but boy would I love to tweet him that question.  So if anybody knows how I can get in contact with him (like maybe he's your cousin or uncle or something),  let me know it'd be pretty rad. 

I did this lesson with kindergarten last year, so go to this post to see more of the "how to" details.  There was a slight change to the lesson.  Because of time constraints, instead of using toilet paper rolls to stamp hearts around the border students just drew their own with sharpie markers.  Although, I thought the stamping was pretty cool, I love the personalities of the hearts the students drew. When a heart all of sudden turns into a little person or magically develops a weird growth--I dig it.  

  

With all the Valentine's Parties underway in classrooms this is what the Art Teacher's Valentine looks like:

If only the colored pencils were always that sharp...

What are you doing for V-day?  I'm attending a super awesome Vintage Valentine event at the Joslyn Art Museum, you can call me Zelda Fitzgerald for the night.   

It's a Winter Wonderland

CAUTION: WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE MAY OVERLOAD YOU WITH IMAGERY

This winter (starting in November) has really brought in some cool temperatures for us.  The little snow that we've had is long gone because of a couple of 60 degree January days--weather man when is the next big snow storm?  But really when I was a kid growing up in the 90s snow forts, sledding, and snowmen were a regular phenomenon.  And when I say snow I MEAN SNOW. Nebraska hasn't seen a real snow fall (over a foot) since 2009.  I wear my snow boots with pride, even without snow, but every once in awhile they like to meet up with an old friend too (so bring back that 90s snow).   

Anywho, here are a few of the winter themed projects done by the primary grade students throughout the season.  

This is a lesson I did last year with kindergarten.  But instead of just using blue construction paper students made some painted paper to use instead. And WOWSER I love this version! There is just something about that added texture and dimension the background gives.

And who doesn't love a good snowman massacre?  I also had another one that I didn't get a picture of, but let's just stay my buddy P got a little heavy handed with the red oil pastel--there was quite a scene.

Kindergarteners made these fun little penguins too:

1st graders had a lot going in.  It seemed like whenever there was an early out, "cold day," assembly, or I had a sub a 1st grade was hit.  So each class had about a zillion things going on and ALL OF THEM were different.  

With this lesson, that most started, we explored how you could create space.

The idea for this lesson was sparked by another elementary art teacher in the district.  Using the primary colors students mixed colors to create a rainbow.  The teacher I got the lesson from then had her students draw snowmen on top of the background, I wasn't really feeling the snowmen vibes so I went with a polar bear instead.

and to finish it off this group was just out of wack with our schedule so why not draw OLAF????

But really 1st graders drew these.  Are you amazed? Because I am

Here's another lesson I did last year and again this year with 2nd grade, it's quite popular in the Pinterest community and brings a lot of traffic my way.  I really enjoy doing this lesson, it gives a fresh take to the snowman or as I like to call him the SNOWcone.  

Maybe one day I'll have so much free time on my hands that I'll be able to illustrate and write a children's book--I think this guy would be my main character.  Have any good character names?

PEEEEE YEWWW--Do you smell that?

Kindergartners had their first taste (not literally, yuck!) of clay.  Kids always love clay especially when you trick them into thinking it's this super awesome magical stuff.  For kindergarteners I like to start out some sort of project using a pinch pot, just to keep it simple.  The past few years we made ladybugs, and yeah they were cute, but I was sick of those.  I was perusing the interwebs and ran across this project over at ARTventurous and adapted it to my needs. 

Especially with my kindergarteners, I like to start a project with some sort of literature.  This seemed like a no brainer, I'm going to read a story about a skunk.  I set upon the task of searching the school library using the keyword "skunk" and only one book came up, Move Over Rover.  Well this book is actually about a dog and the skunk has a short guest appearance of about 10 seconds, it was the best I could do.  Someone needs to write more books about skunks ASAP, kids love the grossness and smelliness of a skunk...think of all the art project possibilities. 

We started out with a simple pinch pot body, pinched up a couple ears, and pinched out a little nose.  Lastly we took a back of a pencil to poke a little hole in the back for the tail.  In one class I had the students attempt to use the pipe cleaners to make the tails.  Even with my superb step by step instructions only 2 students successfully made a tail, so I made the executive decision to just make the rest for the other classes.

The next class students placed a piece of masking tape down the back of the skunk and simply painted it black.  Since the air dry clay dries white I peeled the tape off to reveal a white stripe.  To finish it all off I hot glued on the tails and the eyes. 

I love these little guys.  I think they are super cute and funny.  One of the kindergarten teachers used her classes as a Christmas gift for the parents.  For the girls, they added a little bow to the head, and the boys added a little bow tie under the nose.  She then took a picture of each of her students holding a sign that read "Merry Christmas from your little stinker."  Pretty clever, right?  I wish I had some pictures of them, but what a great idea!

Kindergarteners take Color

Several weeks back, my kindergarten classes dove in head first to the concept of color.

We first explored the world of primary colors and lines to create these masterpieces:

Next up was to explore what the primary colors can do so we painted paper and made the secondary colors.  I've done this every year with my kindergarteners because they really seem to understand the concept of the primary colors making the secondary colors when they do the mixing themselves.

This year I switched it up a little bit, check out the past few years here and here.  Although, you can't go wrong with the colors I think I kind of like the one's from years past better...what do you think?

That 1st Day of Kindergarten...

Oh kindergarteners, how you challenge and test me.  So what do you have them do on the first day of art class? MAKE SOMETHING REALLY AWESOME.  And of course something they can mirror you to see if they have the ability to follow instructions.  I did this lesson last year, but decided this was going to be my first project this year. Simple cutting, gluing--DON'T forget the sharpies and paint too (insert kindergarten cheers here)!!!!

So far I've seen each group of kindergarteners (7 sections) 3 times.
Here are my favorite things they have said to me:
"Are we going to talk about stranger danger today"
"This place (talking about the art room) is so awesome I'd like to take naps in here."
One student will only call me Mister.

I'm often referred to as:
"Mr. Artmaker"
and my favorite...
"Mr. Paintbrush Master"

...and then there are always a few vases that accidentally get knocked off the table.

End of the Year Kindergarten Projects

I was all over the place with my kindergarten classes this year.  I had some very tough groups so we couldn't always do the same thing as the other classes.  Here are a couple of projects we did in the last couple weeks of school, and I mean literally every single class did something different.