Are you wondering what to get a child in your family for the holidays? As an art teacher, I see what the kids really like and what they gravitate towards to when they are given free time in art. These are some popular items for kids that I have personally used and recommend. Most of these can be found at your local Target or Michaels (or other craft/art store). Don’t forget to print off a coupon online if you are … Read more…
We just finished these lovely Halloween pictures today. I don’t really like doing “holiday” art during art class unless I can tie in some solid art concepts. (That’s why I sometimes do the fun crafty afterschool classes.) For this project, the kindergartners learned a few art vocabulary words: Silhouette the outline or general shape of something… a dark image outlined against a lighter background. Warm Colors the yellows and reds of the color spectrum, associated with fire, heat, sun, and warmer … Read more…
This is a great beginning of the year project for kindergartners. During the first 40 min. class period: 1. Identify the primary colors: RED, BLUE and YELLOW. Show the color wheel and discuss. (During the next project, we experiment with color mixing.) 2. Teach about the artist Piet Mondrian. I use a Powerpoint slideshow to show the artworks and explain about his style. Discuss the straight lines, shapes and colors. 3. The children glue pre-cut black strips to the paper. … Read more…
Always a popular fall activity, we made leaf rubbings last week. Then, using our new Gelli Plates, we pulled prints of the leaves. To do this, we rolled acrylic paint on the plate. The kids then rolled textures in the paint using texture rollers. Leaves were placed on top. Then, white paper was placed on top of the plate. We rubbed the back of the paper with our fingers and then pulled the paper off to reveal these leaf prints. … Read more…
Playing with wire Learning about Lines Straight, curved, loopy, wavy, zigzag… Over, under and through A first foray into sculpture
This is one of my favorite kindergarten projects and it is perfect to teach at the beginning of the year. Lines are introduced and we talk about the many types of lines… straight, zigzag, loopy, wavy, etc. Then I show them how they can make dotted and dashed lines, lines that start out wavy and then become spiky and even lines that are made by placing shapes in a row. The kindergartners start with a black marker and draw the … Read more…
A great project to begin the year is a DOT project. The kindergartners read the book The Dot, by Peter Reynolds. I love this book! We also view a slide show of some artworks that use dots (Australian Aboriginal, Seurat). The first day we trace circles on colored construction paper. We use lids, cups and rolls of masking tape. The children cut these circles out and glue them to a white piece of paper. On the second day, they … Read more…
