Jack and the Beanstalk: Kindergarten

This week in Kindergarten we are reading Jack and the Beanstalk.  One of the reasons I decided to theme my art show and nine weeks(and maybe next nine weeks) on Nursery Rhymes & Classic Stories/Fables is because the kids just don't know them.  Only three students were familiar with Jack and the Beanstalk today.  That just blows my mind?!?  

So I had the students draw a loop-da-loop line from one side of their paper to the other.  They then had to make a second line right beside it so that there was something to paint inside of.  Then students added leaves to help fill in the empty spaces on their picture.  I gave each student Blue & Yellow tempera paint.  During my demo, I made sure to show them how to mix a lighter green & a darker green.  My kindergartners seemed to want to "scrub" the paper with a dry brush instead of redipping it into their paint.  I had to stop the class and reteach this part of painting to them.  I basically show them how the brush should flow across the paper, and how that looks compared to scrubbing the paper with a dry brush.  

Color Me Impressed!!!

You have those moments were you are just so impressed with a child's work...ya gotta tell some one!  Well, after e-mailing his mom...and stopping any teacher I saw in the hall....I decided I needed to share it with you as well.  I was introducing colored pencils for the first time with my Kindergarten students. I just don't even want to deal with it first semester.  The sharpening is really the issue with the K's.  By now though...I feel they have a handle on it...and are ready for colored pencils.  I showed them blending/mixing, and value before turning them loose!  This student filled up his page with this drawing better than most...but the color really took me by surprise.  He did such an amazing job with blending the red/pink in the center flower...and the yellow to red was looking so wonderful on the top right hand flower!!! 

 I can't wait for him to finish it up!!!!

Even More Circular Design Paintings: 2nd Grade

I really hope ya'll are not getting tired of these...because there may be one or two more posts as the rest of my classes finish their work.  This group I felt has done the best so far.  I placed them outside my room as soon as they were dry, and the response from the students & faculty has been amazing! 

Tints & Color Mixing with Kindergarten

Kindergarten did the Georgia O'Keeffe lesson I've shared on here in years past.  They start with a dot in the center of the page, and draw six wavey lines coming from the dot.  They then pick a plate of paint that I've already pre-dispensed(I try to have a variety of color combos).  Everyone gets white to create tints.  I showed them how to mix their colors on the paper, and to paint from the center point out to create a "flow".  At the end of class we discussed what tints & shades were, they were given a color & had to tell me what two colors made it, and then just other random color knowledge. 

Chihuly Inspired Paintings

After watching a video on Chihuly & looking at some images I had from the St. Louis installation we were ready to begin our project. Providing background knowledge to your projects is important for your students to view it as more than just an odd skill their odd teacher is making them do.

  My students revisited the idea of our project from last week, and recreated the line drawing that they would eventually paint.  I introduced analogous colors & revisited complementary colors.  Students then picked out the analogous colors they wanted & received white to tint the image.  While they were painting I allowed the Chihuly video to play in the background.  After students were finished with their analogous color, they received their complementary color to make a line/ripple design on their image. 

This is image is from the Chihuly exhibit at St. Louis.

Kindergarten - Georgia O'Keeffe

Ms. Luquire taught a lesson on Georgia O'Keeffe to our Kindergarten classes. The students looked at work by O'Keeffe & many examples of close up flowers(thanks to a 90% off calender I had!). Ms. Luquire introduced Radial Symmetry to the students as well. They used tempera paint & oil pastels(for the center the following week). We limited the color palette to only 3 colors(one of which was white) that we pre-dispensed. They were allowed to pick out of the colors set out. This was done for a few reasons: keep students from making "mud", speed up the process, allow student to create tints. We also did not allow student to rinse out their brushes so that they would mix their colors.

Kindergarten Watercolor Painting -Color Mixing

Sometimes you just have to be brave! I decided that I'd do a fall watercolor picture with my kindergarten classes. They have been doing extremely well, and I felt that I could trust them with a little more than some of my classes in years past. Well, after cups of water being spilt daily.....I still feel they did a pretty good job. I did demo the lesson first and show them how to make orange. I use the BIGGIE water colors by Prang that have four large ovals of Red, Yellow, Blue, and Green.