K4 - K5

January, 2018

Patterns and Printmaking with K4-Second Grades

December, 2017

For the last few weeks before the holiday, K4 and K5 students participated in designing a mixed media Christmas tree. In the process of working with various types of glue, they practiced using a ruler to draw a straight line for the sides of their tree triangles. Students also participated in art stations where they could choose to build with Legos or Play Dough, design a Christmas ornament, or do a drawing. 

November 30, 2017: 

Shhhh! We are working on a surprise gift for someone we love. More details will come later! 

November 27, 2017: 

Today in Art class, we thought back to a few days ago when we celebrated Thanksgiving. First, we looked at a picture from the book, The Night Before Thanksgiving. Students described what they thought the picture was about, and of course they guessed exactly what it is - getting the feast ready! They were asked how they knew it was about Thanksgiving; what clues are there in the picture? How is the picture telling the story? Then, we all closed our eyes and imagined Thanksgiving Day. What did the table look like? Who was there? Did we watch anything on television or play fun games with cousins? What did we eat? 

Students were asked to very quietly draw what they remembered; to tell their story with a picture, not with words. Then, after a few minutes of drawing, we shared our stories with the rest of the class! This was a terrific exercise in visualization and I am so proud of our K4 and K5 students for their terrific work habits, self control, and ability to focus. They are amazing! 

Weeks 12-14:

Kindergarten and K4 students have enjoyed thinking about autumn, creating torn paper collages of trees! The leaves are changing color and falling, falling off of the trees this time of year. Their beautiful colors are all around us! For this art project, students are spending time developing fine motor skills and hand strength by tearing paper and using scissors and glue. We had fun adding a little squirrel character as well!

Week 11:

This week, we are finishing up our pumpkin collages, learning how to use liquid glue. We practiced using glue to "dot, dot, not a lot" on the paper, applying only a little  to our pumpkin cut outs and pieces of painted paper grass. On Thursday, we added black and white shapes along with googly eyes to complete our silly pumpkin faces! These are so funny! 

Week 10:

K4 and K5 students learned how to safely use scissors this week, cutting lines on a practice paper before cutting up their green painted papers into grass. Then, we practiced drawing a pumpkin and cut it out! Scissor skills do not come easily, and learning how to cut along a line takes lots of practice. I am very proud of their effort!

Week Nine:

We only met one time this week due to a holiday on Monday, but we made this art class count! Inspired by the Pumpkin Patch field trip the kids attended with Mrs. Killian and Mrs. Manston, I decided to further the K4 and K5 training in mixing primary colors by having them paint papers that will be made into pumpkins next week! We used red and yellow to make an orange paper, and then we mixed yellow and blue to make a green paper. Early finishers enjoyed a story; The Berenstain Bears and the Missing Pumpkin.  At the end of class, we listened to two songs (below). For our next art class, we will practice our scissor skills, cutting grass out of the green paper and a pumpkin out of the orange! 

Week Eight:

K4 and K5 students learned about the fruits of the spirit on Monday after viewing The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle. We talked about how all of us are hungry for God, and the good fruits of the spirit will come out of us when we know Jesus. He fills us up and satisfies us! We also listened to the fruit of the spirit song at the end of class! On Friday, we painted our drawings after Mrs. Nichols demonstrated what happens when the primary colors of red, yellow, and blue are mixed: we watched the colors gently fall and flow in water vases. The kids were amazed, and some of them were able to predict what would happen! At the very end of class, we watched a short music video by Ok Go, "Three Primary Colors." Our paintings will go on display in the hallway next to the art room this week. 

 

Week Seven: 

Students in K4 and K5 got to experience the magic of painting! We started the week by drawing a funny "Crazy Hair" person, with lots of different kinds of lines sprouting out of his or her head after reviewing line types: 

We also watched a short animated version of Harold and the Purple Crayon, about a boy who uses a line to create his own wonderful imaginary world: 

Then, on Thursday morning we donned our paint shirts (thank you Mrs. Manston and Mrs. Killian!) and added lots of painted color to our drawings. Mrs. Nichols demonstrated how to add water to the watercolor paint and gently stroke with the brush to remove color. We learned to rinse the brush out between colors, and how to use the brush to paint all kinds of lines and areas of color. Students were encouraged to use only two colors per picture, but many more colors were added during class. You can see the wonder in their faces as they observed how the colors mixed on the paper and in the water cups!

Here are a few of our students' beautiful, magical paintings! On the left is Khloe's drawing of a "crazy hair" person; she added the whole body, not just a face! Alaya drew a whole person, too. Our littlest artists are creating wonderful things! 

Week Six:

K4 and K5 students completed their flower sculptures, carefully gluing a popsicle stick onto the form to make a "stem." They are looking forward to giving these to their grandmas and grandpas on Friday morning after the Grandparents Day Program! They have all worked so hard to practice their songs with Mrs. Erwin, Mrs. Manston, and Mrs. Killian! 

On Thursday morning, we took turns experimenting with painting a variety of lines. Mrs. Nichols set up activity centers (Legos, Play Dough, and drawing) while she worked with a few students at a time to practice painting skills. We are learning how to hold the brush, how to move the brush to form a line, and how to get a nice amount of paint onto the brush without too much water. Painting is hard work (but fun!), and I am so proud of our kindergarten students for their effort!

Week Five:

We are making flowers to give to our grandparents next week! The first step is adding some color to a coffee filter. The kids then spritzed a little water on them to create a blended effect - this was a lot of fun! Next week we will scrunch up the coffee filters into the shape of a flower and glue them to popsicle sticks. This will be our first sculpture! At the end of class, we viewed a story about a chameleon searching for a color of his own: 

Week Four:
K4/K5 students practiced recognizing and drawing all kinds of lines; vertical, horizontal, diagonal, zig-zag, and curving. First, we warmed up our art muscles by pretending to paint the air with zig-zag lines, curving lines, and horizontals and verticals. Then, we drew each type of line on our paper. We also looked at several paintings by artist Franz Marc, who loved to paint animals. Below are two paintings we looked at to find specific lines. We also viewed two video clips about line; The Lines Song, and Little Green, a children's book by Keith Baker. After drawing each kind of line, it was exciting to see this story about a boy watching a hummingbird and then painting the bird's movements!  

The Large Blue Horses, Franz Marc, 1911

The Tiger, Franz Marc, 1912

Week Three:
We are continuing to practice shape recognition while we create from our imaginations! On Monday, we used square templates to do a texture rubbing (frottage). We also practiced drawing basic shapes. On Thursday, we went on a shape scavenger hunt and practiced some more frottage! 

The Perfect Square, by Michael Hall, Youtube

Weeks One and Two: (Here is what we did on the first day of school!)
The first few weeks of Art class we will be practicing simple procedures such as entering the classroom calmly and quietly, listening to instructions, raising hands to speak, following directions, and lining up quietly. Also, we will be using our imaginations to make a picture out of shapes! Kindergarten students will learn to recognize and draw simple shapes as well as to use them in new ways. Below are several books on Youtube that we are viewing as we learn in art class. Finally, we will be doing a self-portrait drawing which will serve as a skills diagnostic. We will draw another self-portrait at the end of the year to see how much we have improved!  

Mouse Shapes, by Ellen Stoll Walsh

Beautiful Oops, by Barney Saltzberg

K4 and K5 pre-instruction self portrait drawings, August, 2017

The kindergarten art program focuses on allowing students to explore art materials as well as to build cognitive, affective, social, and fine motor skills. As we practice listening, sharing, cooperating with each other, and following directions, we will learn about line, shape, color, and pattern. We will also use our imaginations to create! In addition, we will learn about artists from the past and we will practice using art vocabulary while talking about art. 

Some of the materials and techniques we will use include glue, scissors, collage, tempera paint, frottage, printmaking, markers, crayons, a variety of papers, and many other fun art media!

The K4 and K5 classes meet twice per week for 30 minutes, and some days we will get messy! Please send an adult size vest for your child to wear (backwards) as a smock to protect his/her clothing as well as some hand wipes. Thank you! 


Click this link to see our new Alabama State Standards for Kindergarten Visual Art.