Kindergarten Projects From My Long-Term Sub Gig

Hello!

So, it's been a busy Spring for me since I finished student teacherin' in December--I subbed a bit in preschool, kindergarten, elementary and high school and then landed a wonderful 6 1/2 weeks long-term sub gig at an elementary school nearby teaching art to grades K-5. What a blast I had--the students and staff at Fairgrounds rock and I was sad to go (it's hard to stop doing something you love when your next big thing isn't settled upon yet). Since then, I haven't blogged much because I've been daily subbing and working on my dang art teacher portfolio (more on that in a future post or ten). ANYHOW....I thought I'd break out some of the projects that appear in the collage here so that you had a bit more info on them...ENJOY!!

For more info on this awesome project--READ ON!

Kindergarten Art Projects From Fairgrounds Elementary School:

Week 1: Lots of Hearts (1 day)

A getting-to-know-you project.

Inspired by Valentine’s Day, students used chalk pastels to trace the outline of a heart shape (line) and then smudge the edges with cotton balls. Once the heart tracer is removed a glowing heart (shape) remains. Students were asked to repeat the procedure 5-6 times using whatever colors they wished.

 

Sorry, all I have of this project is my teacher example.
The finished pieces were WAY better!

Week 2: Picasso Bouquets (1 day) See post here

Inspired by Pablo Picasso’s drawing: Hands With Bouquet

Students looked at and talked about the drawing “Hands With Bouquet” by  Pablo Picasso. Students then used oil pastels to create a similar bouquet of flowers using circles and ovals and vertical lines. When they were done, I painted the palm of their hand with black paint and they stamped their handprint onto the work to look as though they were holding the bouquet.

Week 3 and 4: Mondrian Mixed Media Collages (2 days) From Art Room 104

Inspired by the work of Piet Mondrian

Students looked at the work of Mondrian and discussed how his work was similar to (and different from) the work of Picasso. Students then used scissors to cut squares and rectangles from paper to create a collage. On day two of the project, students added horizontal and vertical lines to the work using scraps of mat board and black tempera paint.

 

This is the info I put with my displays.
Many people comment about how helpful the info is.

A student example.

The finished display--there's one class in here, I think.

Week 5 and 6: Class Quilt From Pinterest (Image from Solana Highlands School)

Inspired by the 19^th and 20^th Century Quilts from the Picturing America Series (Particularly the “Crazy Quilt” Image)

We reviewed the shapes we had been using the past few weeks and the art method they had used recently (collage). Students then used scissors, glue and a variety of papers to create individual quilt squares that had whatever colors and shapes they wanted. On day 2, the teacher used a hole punch to add holes to each quilt square (about 8 per square) and students used yarn to sew their quilt square. Individual student work was mounted together to create a whole-class composition displayed in the individual Kindergarten classrooms.

Each Kindergarten class made their own quilt for their classroom.

An example of a quilt square (they are 6" square).

I needed one more square and decided to create this piece--
the teachers LOVED the quote.

Week 7: Kandinsky group mural See post here

Inspired by Kandinsky’s color studies

Students used paint to create a composition of concentric rings based on the color studies by Kandinsky. Individual student work was displayed with other grade levels to create a multi-age group mural for the hallway.

A close-up of the individual 6" squares all glued together
onto the larger roll of paper using Elmer's glue (a dot in each corner).

The finished mural. Beautiful!!

Laminated Snowy Day Calendar

YAY! I got a laminator! For those of you who work in a school, it may seem like no big deal, but I work a mish-mash of part-time gigs right now, so when I want to laminate something, I have to go to the office supply store.  Since I'm often pressed for time (and money), I usually use Contact paper or I slip the paper into a sheet protector.

I love the Cardinal--what a bright bit of color!

I probably would have kept doing the sheet-protector-thing, but I saw this great image online and thought it would make a lovely image for my Gifts From The Art Class that is coming up soon. I read that the artist used the ultra-thin tissue paper that shoes come wrapped in. How clever ! I loved the look of the image--I couldn't tell if it was a spring or winter picture--it seems like it could be either--perfect to go with a year-at-a-glance calendar. My challenge was to see how I could recreate the piece for my students and have it hold together to make it gift-worthy. That's when I thought of the laminator! My friend had one and she sold it to me for $1, and here I am.

Snowy Day Calendar

Supplies Needed:

• One 8 1/2" x 11" piece of medium blue card stock (I used scrapbooking paper)
• One 8 1/2" x 11" (or so) piece of dry wax paper (or tracing paper or thin tissue paper); dry wax paper is sold at restaurant supply places and it has less wax on it than regular wax paper--it is used to wrap sandwiches
• White paper scraps
• Scissors
• White glue stick (not the purple ones)
• A year-at-a-glance calendar trimmed to fit on the page, allowing enough space for the image, I got mine at www.believingboldly.com, she has a few free printable year-at-a-glance calendars to choose from. I printed it out at 75%
• Tiny scrap of red card stock
• Laminator & laminating film

Directions:

1. Draw a very faint line halfway down the blue paper, this will be a guide for the bottom edge of your tree image. Use your glue stick to make a line of glue in the ground area and make four circles of glue where each of your trees will be. Don't worry about getting the glue perfect--you are just putting the glue where you want the confetti to go.

2. Cut the white paper into strips about 1/8" wide. Then hold a couple of strips together and cut the strips into 1/8" squares, over your blue paper, so that the little confetti squares fall onto the areas that have glue on them. Shake the excess confetti off the paper.

3. Crumple the dry wax paper slightly. Rip the paper into circles, ovals, squares and/or strips and apply them to create layered areas on the ground, leaf area of the trees and for the trunks of the trees. When we got to this tissue paper part, I had my students gently dab the dry wax paper on the glue stick instead of using the glue stick on the blue paper (which moves the confetti around). You don't have to goop on the glue--you just need the dry wax paper to stay still until you've laminated the piece.

4. Once you have the leaf areas, trunks, and ground done, you can add a cardinal cut from red card stock. If you had a bit of tan card stock, you could make a female cardinal, too.

5. Use a glue stick to attach the calendar printout to the piece. Trim any excess tissue paper and have the artist sign the piece.

6. Laminate and enjoy your artwork all year long!

1 Point Perspective Shapes of AWESOMENESS

Ok, so this is a pretty basic 1 point perspective draw-a-long that I did with my 6th grade students. This was left by the art teacher for me to do with the students as their first project of the semester. Since it could be a little dry, I starting calling it "Shapes of AWESOMENESS" and used a super-hero-type voice that really inspired awe in my students :-) or maybe they were worried I had lost my marbles!

One of the students made me this--Thank you!

Anyhoo, this was a great way for them to learn the basics of perspective drawing such as horizon line, vanishing point, height, width, depth, facing size, construction lines, etc. They were able to draw geometric shapes, organic shapes, and letters. I encouraged the students to place their shapes and letters above and below the horizon line.

Once they practiced drawing a variety of shapes and letters on their "Shapes of Awesomeness" test sheet, I gave them another, smaller piece of paper and they could draw their names using what they had learned. They drew with pencil, outlined with Sharpie, then shaded with colored pencils.

My super-smart students then suggested we glue the finished names to their folders (duh, Mrs. P, why didn't you think of that!?!) and that's what we did. The teacher I was subbing for uses basic two-pocket folders for students to hold class paperwork and smaller projects in-the-works and these fit nicely on the cover.

Enjoy!

Calendar Design #3: Snowy Day Calendar (REPOST)

OK, this is the LAST calendar idea I'll post in the series--I promise. Well, I *think* it will be! This is a repost of an idea I used with a group of art students way back in 2012. Oh, it seems like so long ago :-)

You can read the original post here, but I got the idea for the image from Pinterest back when I was new to pinning. I just loved the image which (through the use of Google Translate) I found was made using the tissue paper the crafter received in a pair of shoes she had purchased. How creative to see potential in something most of us just throw away!

ENJOY!

Printmaking with Shapes: Spooky Haunted Houses

Cue the scary music! It's time to get spooky! In my after school class we talked about silhouettes and nighttime and fall. Although we don't usually walk around outside at night--we may be doing that soon if we Trick-or-Treat at Halloween. Halloween can be lots of things: scary, exciting, spooky, cold, dark, and tingly (I love that one!). I had the idea to create a spooky neighborhood and I asked the students to help me by creating their own Spooky Houses.

We had tried another way of making printmaking plates the week before, but the students were struggling a bit and I knew the final results might be "eh" instead of "WOW!" The class is made up of first- through fourth-graders and since they were all struggling with the media, I realized I chosen the wrong way to go about this project! So I rethought the project over the week and this is what I came up with...

We used sticky back foam shapes to create the "silhouette" or outline of our houses that we could then print onto different colors of paper. That's the cool thing about printmaking--you make one plate and you can re-ink it and print it multiple times! Below are the directions for the project. We did it during one after school class period, but I would do this over three regular art classes (to also include a basic writing component--more on that later). Anyway, this will get you started:

On the left: Printing plate example
Middle: The print
Right: The haunted house print embellished with details.

Spooky Printmaking Nighttime Houses

Supplies Needed For the Printing Plates:

• Sticky-back Foam Shapes (I bought larger sheets and cut my own shapes from them--squares, triangles, long, skinny strips, rectangles, etc.). 
• Mat board or foam core cut into rectangles for the printing plate (ours are 5 1/2" x 7" because that's what I had).
• Scissors
• Pencils

Directions to make the Printing Plates:

1. Arrange the foam shapes onto the plate to create the silhouette or outside shape of a spooky house. I had the students arrange the pieces first, then when they liked what they had created, they could peel the paper off the back of their shapes and attach them to their plates.
2. Add elements to the background: bats, ghosts, etc. Attach those to the plate as well. Younger kids may need help cutting out complex shapes such as bats.

Supplies Needed For the Prints:

• Your completed printing plate (from above)
• Newspaper for covering surfaces
• Solid colored papers (We used orange, 2 shades of purple, and lime green cut to 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" rectangles)
• Washable printmaking ink in black
• A soft rubber roller
• A piece of plastic-coated butcher paper (maybe 14"x 17" or so)
• Masking tape or painter's tape

Directions to make Prints:

1. Before you begin, set up your work area by taping the butcher paper (plastic-side up) to the work surface on all four sides with tape. This will be the area you'll use for the ink and roller. Squirt a bit of ink on this area and use the roller to spread it around and load the roller. Also, place newspapers on the rest of your work surface.
2. Ink up the plate, and place a sheet of paper on top of it, rub and press gently & remove. Ta da! A print. Move it to a drying area (that has been covered with newspaper) and let dry.
3. Repeat to create more prints. I had the students make three to take home and one for me.
4. Let the prints dry before moving on to the next step.

Supplies to Embellish and Complete the Spooky Houses:

• Glue sticks and Elmer's glue
• Large sheets of black construction paper (12 x 18"), 1 per student
• Scraps of yellow, orange and red paper for windows and moons
• Scissors and pencils
• Sharpies (thin and thick)
• Googly eyes (optional)
• Halloween stickers (optional)

Directions to Embellish and Complete the Spooky Houses:

1. Have students glue three of their prints to the black construction paper sheet using a glue stick.
2. Have students draw and cut out windows and moons, etc. from the yellow scraps of paper. They can trace their pencil lines with Sharpie, if they like. My students also used Sharpies to add cracks to their windows, spiders, and scary phrases to the doors like "Keep Out!" and such.
3. Glue the windows, doors, and moons, to the prints using glue sticks.
4. Add goggly eyes to any critters on their prints, if desired: ghosts, cats, bats. Use Elmer's glue for that.
5. Embellish with stickers, if desired.

Close up of my trial print.

And now you are ready for a Spooky Fall Night! ENJOY!

Alexander Calder Kinetic Sculptures

There are just too many good ideas out there! I am constantly seeing great projects and thinking "Yep, I'm gonna do THAT with my students!" Sometimes an idea inspires me to invent a project and other times I keep it "as is." In this case, I had a few different ideas for projects inspired by the mobiles and sculptures of Alexander Calder, but I decided to go with this one from Princess Artypants.

The prep was easy and the supply list basic. I made a very simple poster about Calder and then showed my students a brief video of one of Calder's outdoor sculptures moving in the breeze. We were able to discuss  what makes a piece of artwork a sculpture (3D) and the types of shapes we were seeing in Calder's work (organic versus geometric). We also talked about how the pieces were designed to move, or be kinetic. I had the students select a limited color palette (four colors) and then they started working.

The images are from the web
and cut from some old Art History books I had.

Another element I introduced came from Salamander Art. They suggested using a shape code as published in "The Calder Game," a mystery book by Blue Balliett for children grades 5-8. The code assigns a different Calder-inspired shape to every letter in the alphabet. The older children were fascinated by the code and quickly went to work spelling their name in code on their mobiles. Next time, I might create templates for the shapes in the code...I don't know. I need to think about that further. But the children did love it, so I think my lesson will evolve that way next time!

I have to hand it to Princess Artypants whose photos are nice and clear, these mobiles were hard to photograph. They really did come out nice though--so try the project (or whatever version of Calder mobiles or sculptures you come across!). ENJOY!

Dollar Store Preschool Art Ideas

I have two little ones under 5 and there are some times when I need to keep their hands occupied, but I don't want to have a mess on my hands (like just before dinner!). In my travels around cyberspace I've collected a couple of age appropriate art ideas that would work perfectly!

Yarn Art on a Sand Paper Board

I made a list and went to the dollar store and bought much of what I needed! These ideas are not mine and they are out there in abundance. Make a couple of these for your little ones for busy time, a car ride or to give as a birthday gift for your favorite preschooler! ENJOY!

Mini Salt Sensory Table

Supplies Needed:

• Small tray (a dark one works well)
• Salt (about 1/3 cup)
• Miscellaneous stuff: paint brushes, cookie cutters, small scoops, little trucks (we like construction/snowplow ones)

Directions:

1. Place 1/3 cup salt in the bottom of the tray. Too much and the child won't be able to "draw" in the salt properly.

2. Play! Actually, this is a great way for children to explore drawing shapes and letters. They can "draw" in the salt or push it around with the construction vehicles for a mini sandbox experience. This is the messiest activity of the bunch, but cleanup isn't too bad...

Cost: $1.50 (not including Misc. "stuff")

This salt activity tray idea is from "Teach Preschool" blog. I LOVE this blog! It is full of wonderful activities and experiences for the younger set. Deborah is so creative, I look forward to seeing what she comes up with!

Salt: messy, but fun!

Mess-Free Fingerpainting

Supplies Needed:

• 1 gallon-size zip top freezer bag
• About 1/3 cup tempera paint
• Piece of foam core or heavy cardboard, optional
• Duct tape

Directions:

There are a couple ways to do this: you can either put two colors in the bag such as red and yellow and have the child mix them and learn about color mixing (red & yellow make orange) OR you can just put paint in the bag and move on to the fun! Either way, you'll want to put about 1/3 cup paint total in the bag (too much doesn't work well) and then squeeze the air out of the bag and zip it shut. Then use duct tape to further seal the seam closed. I taped ours to a piece of foam core so it is portable.

Cost: $3.00 if you use cardboard you have at home for the backing

Oldest son says "It's like an iPad!" So sad...

Sand Paper Board (With Variations)

Supplies Needed:

• Coarse Sandpaper Sheets (Yep, I got a pack at the dollar store!)
• Hot glue gun with glue sticks
• Heavy cardboard or foam core
• Duct tape, optional
• Sharpie or black paint, optional
• Yarn bits

1. Glue the sandpaper sheet to the cardboard or foam core using hot glue. Cover the edges of the piece with duct tape, if you'd like a more "finished" edge.

2. On some of the boards, draw lines (horizontal, vertical, diagonal, wavy, curved, zigzag, etc.) with a marker or paint. Another idea is drawing shapes such as circle, square, triangle, etc. 

3. Cut bits and pieces of different colors of yarn and have your child press them onto the sandpaper (following the lines you drew, if desired, or making his/her own pictures). The yarn will stick to the sandpaper and can be removed and reused over and over! Felt and cotton balls also will stick to the board.

Exploring shapes and lines.