Animals

I love these magical animals created by 1st and 2nd graders! We started by looking at animals in art, including "Cat and Bird" by Paul Klee and the many Blue Dog paintings by George Rodrigue.

Day 1 we read THE CAT AND THE BIRD, by Geraldine Elschner which was inspired by Klee's painting. What a great idea for a book! To get started I used instructions on how to draw a simple cat from Kathy Barbo's wonderful website, Art Projects for Kids. We looked at how to use basic shapes, beginning with a circle for the head, to draw a variety of animals. The first day they drew with pencils then outlined with sharpies.

Day 2 we read WHY IS BLUE DOG BLUE, by George Rodrigue, then they went to work adding color to their animals using crayons. Day 3 we looked at more examples of Blue Dog with various backgrounds, then used tempera cakes to finish the backgrounds.

Finally, on Day 4, students wrote titles and descriptions for their animals, which they loved doing! For kids who really struggled with writing I transcribed for them.

Beginning of Kindergarten

EVERY year I forget how hard Kindergarten can be at the beginning. The very first day is magical, but as the spell wears off it can get a little crazy. Definitely like herding cats. I always start with reading a story on the rug- and lately this includes reminders on how to sit and listen. I copied this rhyme from another teacher:

Criss cross, apple sauce,

Hands in your lap.

Eyes on Mrs. Freeman

'Cause she likes it like that!

Then, we begin with line. Since our school year is divided into trimesters we focus the first one on line, the second on shape, and the third on color. Reading LINES THAT WIGGLE, by Candace Whitman is a great way to begin talking about and noticing lines. It leads into a search for lines around the art room, and then students create their own line designs on the folders we'll use for the first trimester to hold their art.

Another great book to use early on is the classic, HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON, by Crockett Johnson. It's such a strange but mesmerizing story! I followed this story up with time to draw on "magic" scratch art paper. Several students had already used it, but for the ones who hadn't it was very much like magic. Even the students who can still only scribble were engaged for most of our time. 

As students finish they learn to put their work in the designated "Finished Pile" and then choose from options in the Makerspace including clipboards and free draw paper, magnet boards and shapes, chalkboards, and art books to read.