Happy Earth Day!

 

Happy Earth Day everyone!

 

Today was a fun day in kindergarten!

 

Ms. Cook had the kids planting flowers.

 

 

We planted Pansies.

 

What a glorious day we had for an outdoor Earth Day activity!

 

They were planted in recycled deli containers too, in keeping with the Earth Day theme.

 

We hope your child's flower will find its way into your garden at home! 

Rice Rainbows

A few weeks ago we started working on learning to spell our color words.  As a follow up, we made some rice rainbows during centers/choice time.

 

 

It's so great to hear the kids sing the spelling of the color words as they make their rainbows.

 

 

I love working with colored rice.  Not only is it pretty, but having to pinch those tiny little grains of rice is great for small motor development.

 

Happy Rainbow Day!

Painted Snowmen

This has to be my all time favorite art project in kindergarten.  These little snowmen melt my heart every year.  This is actually a photo from last year, simply because they aren't dry yet.  More pictures coming soon!

I'm sad to say, I missed my favorite project this year.  (darn germs...getting the best of me)  But, I'm so happy that I have a fabulous teaching partner who jumped at the chance to have some painting fun.  

This project starts with watercolor.  We talk about the difference between cool colors and warm colors.  We look at the "fall" pictures we used in our leaf painting project.  They are full of orange, red, yellow, and brown.  Then, we look at winter pictures.  They are bright and cool, full of blue, purple, and pink.  The kids are asked to paint 3 backgrounds for their snowmen, using cool colors.  Then we leave them alone to dry.

The next step is painting the little snowmen bodies.... and then they dry. Finally, the kids use tempera paint to add details, like hats, scarves, and arms.  I love the use of a variety of art materials, studying the difference between warm and cool colors, and simply letting kids create! 

Happy painting!

Ceramic Gingerbread Man Spoon Rest

Hopefully, all of our little gingerbread men made it home in one piece!  The kids had a fabulous time making this project for you.  It was a great first-time ceramic experience for our classroom.  We are lucky enough to have a kiln at our school and we do 2 or 3 projects each year.  This little spoon rest was project #1.

We started by drawing a gingerbread man, using a tracer.  Then I asked kids to draw a face, icing, buttons, etc.  This was a good practice, just to get the kids thinking about what a gingerbread man looks like, his characteristics, and how they want their gingerbread guy to look.

After rolling, cutting, and drawing features onto clay, we dried and fired the gingerbread men.  Then came the glazing.

Kids painted their features and then we fired them again.

Our frosted gingerbread men turned out so cute!  I hope you like them as much as we do.

Happy Winter Break!

Eric Carle Painting

Books by Eric Carle are perfect for Kindergarten!

We love:






...just to name a few.

Over the past few weeks, we've read at least 25 books by Eric Carle.  Last week, we decided to try our hand at painting like Eric Carle.  Here is a link to Eric Carle's website, where he describes how he "makes" his own paper. 

We use washable paint and lots of different painting materials to get our fabulous texture.  I love Lakeshore Learning, and have purchased most of my painting supplies there.



We used brushes, sponges, and painting stamps to add just 3 colors to each paper. 



We looked at lots of paintings by Eric Carle as inspiration.

It was messy, but so much fun!

Most of the kids had never painted with anything except brushes or hands. These painting combs are amazing, when you paint an entire paper and then drag them through.  Although I suggested that kids try this, many wanted to try it their own way.  I love letting kids explore with art materials. 

The new techniques were exciting to try.

We'll be using our painted paper to create a class book in December.

Happy painting!

Noodle Pattern Necklaces

During November, in Kindergarten, we are usually spending quite a bit of our math time doing pattern work. Today we enjoyed making pattern necklaces and bracelets out of noodles.



The kids were SO focused!  They got to choose if they wanted to make a necklace, bracelet, or both.  They also choose their own colors and patterns.  We spent about 45 minutes developing our patterning skills AND our small motor skills.  

I brought in a beading kit for kids to use too.  They loved this!

This is a fabulous activity to do at home too!  Beading kits are great, but if you're the DIY type, here is a great tutorial on how to dye your own pasta.  I usually have kids tell me the colors they have chosen, as well as label the pattern.  For example, a red-yellow-red-yellow pattern would also be called ABABAB.  A red, red, yellow, red, red, yellow, would be called AABAAB.

Happy patterning!

Deep Space Sparkle Pumpkins

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the website Deep Space Sparkle.  If you're not familiar with it, stop reading my blog immediately, and click over to it!  You'll thank me later.  Patty Palmer is the website's author.  She's an art teacher at an elementary school and shares hundreds of lessons with step by step photos.  (Before I go any further, let me just say how awesome that would be to have a REAL art teacher teaching art to our students!)

I have never considered myself to be artistic.  I took 2 art courses in college, and suddenly I'm qualified to teach art concepts to young children.  Thankfully, the art objectives I'm trying to meet aren't too heavy in kindergarten.  With the help of Deep Space Sparkle, these kids may actually learn some art concepts after all!

Ok, onto the lesson.  I've been following Patty's website since I was introduced to it by my teaching partner last year.  When I saw this lesson, I fell in love.  Here's the link to Patty's step by step instructions.


I didn't notice this until just now, but look at the cute little smiley face on the pumpkin below.  It's so subtle, I didn't even see it before!

 

Very briefly, I'll tell you about a few concepts we learned.

We did a directed drawing of pumpkins.
We mixed yellow and red paint to make orange for our pumpkins.
We used paint to highlight certain areas of our pumpkins.
We used chalk to add starry night details.

Aren't they beautiful?  The Deep Space Sparkle website has art lessons by grade level or subject area.  It is a fabulous resource for parents and teachers.!

Happy painting!

Wild Thing Math

Who doesn't love the book Where the Wild Things Are?  It's a true classic.

We use the Expressions math curriculum in our school district, and when one of the lessons asks kids to label parts of a monster, I think Wild Things.  The lesson asks kids to draw a picture of a monster, count the different features, and write the corresponding numbers.  Kids are supposed to draw things like 4 eyes, 8 teeth, 10 claws, etc.  After reading Where the Wild Things Are, I pass out large black construction paper and brand new boxes of oil pastels.  This lesson is more than just math.  It's math, art, reading, writing, and phonics, all rolled into one.



We spend a lot of time talking about the book, thinking about what's happening to the main character in the book, and looking closely at the Wild Things that Maurice Sendak has created.  After a very quick introduction to oil pastels, a reminder to "think big" as they draw and fill their paper, and a brief modeling of how to draw a Wild Thing, kids are off to create.  Once their Wild Things have been created, we ready to count and label.  I give kids a form that says:

Wild Thing Math
by __________________

My Wild Thing has ______ _____________.

My Wild Thing has ______ _____________.

My Wild Thing has ______ _____________.

I model how to count the Wild Thing features, talking about parts of numbers as we go.  For example, 5 claws and one hand and 5 claws on the other, gives us 10 claws altogether.  We count, add, and then write the numbers on our papers.  Then I model how to sound out words by saying the words slowly and writing the sounds we hear.  We sound out words like horns, teeth, claws, stripes, and hands.  I usually write the word EYES on the board for kids, because that's a tough one to sound out when you're in kindergarten.

I love to have parent helpers (or 6th grade girls, in this case) help trim around the Wild Things. It gives them a bit more shape, and let's be honest, sometimes kindergartners' art projects are tough to decipher. Once cut, we mount the writing with the Wild Thing.  This year, kids did an especially nice job with their writing and sounding out words.  This lesson takes a while, but I love it because it wraps so many different curriculum areas into one project.  It's integration at its best!

Happy drawing, counting, adding, and writing!

Watercolor Leaves

A few weeks ago I shared our first watercolor experience of the school year.  We looked at pictures of fall leaves, talked about fall colors, and then painted on watercolor paper squares.  The kids learned how to wash their brushes before changing colors, experienced the way the colors blend, and learned that lots of water makes the painting kind of blurred and dreamy.

We could have stopped the project right there and the kids would have been happy.



Each child painted 3 squares of paper.  Once they were dry, we used our leaf die cut and punches the squares.  Mounted on fall colored construction paper, they look beautiful lining our hallway.


I love starting off the school year with this project because there is no such thing as an ugly leaf.  All kids are successful and feel proud of their work.  Now, I know some of you truly artsy folks are questioning the artistic value in simply die cutting the leaves and mounting them.  But, let's remember... these are kindergarten students, some of whom have never held a paint brush before.  We paint ALL THE TIME in kindergarten.  There is plenty of time to paint pictures of anything they want.  This time was just a simple learning experience in the way we use watercolor paints in the classroom.  

So pretty, mixed with our sponge painted leaves in the hallway.

Happy painting!

Watercolor in Kindergarten

I'll never forget my first year teaching kindergarten.  I decided to do a fall watercolor painting activity to help students learn the rules about painting, using watercolors, and clean up.  Any time you get the paints out, in kindergarten, the classroom automatically softens to a whisper.  (I think it must be the magic we put in the paints!)  Well, during this first painting experience one of my sweet little girls whispered to her friend, "I've never done this before!" 

From that day on, I vowed to do as much painting as I could possibly fit in.  Today was our first painting experience of the year.  There's something special about brand new watercolors.

We started with a lesson on how to use watercolor paints.  Then we looked at fall pictures.  We noticed the colors we saw in the fall leaves and the trees.  The kids were given three squares of watercolor paper.

Their goal was to use fall colors to fill the square.  For their first painting experience in kindergarten, I wanted to make sure everyone was successful.  We didn't focus on painting a picture, just color.

The squares always turn out to be beautiful!  There is no such thing as a mistake in this project.

The kids had the chance to learn how to use paints, observe fall colors, and experience the way watercolor paints mix together.

I can't wait to show you what we turn these into!

Happy painting!

Painting Poems

One of my favorite poetry activities is painting poems.  We spend a lot of time thinking and planning our poem.  Then we get to paint.  The kids use their mental images to create their pictures.  As their painting, the adults go around the room and have the kids talk about their paintings.  We listen and emphasize the language we hear them using.

 

 

 

 

Once the paintings are dry, we start the writing portion.  After working on poetry for a month, the kids really start to get the hang of it.  Most kindergarteners like to write list poems.

Today, we had the fifth graders help us type our poems.

The fifth graders acted as our writing coaches.  They helped the kindergarteners with the layout and formatting of the poems.

The finished products are hanging in the hallway, between the fifth and kindergarten classrooms. 

The paintings are beautiful.  The writing is beautiful.  The experience was beautiful.

Simply beautiful.