Kindergarten Blue Prints

What is an architect?  What do they do? 

Have you read Iggy Peck, Architect?  It's a beautifully illustrated story about a boy and his dream to be an architect.  Kindergarten students love the pictures and understand the message of the story. 

Kindergarten students pretended they were architects and made Blue Prints using a stamping method.  Check out this Mrs. Knight's Smartest Artists for this and many more wonderful art lessons. 

Kindergarten Number Paintings

Jasper Johns is an American modern artist known for making prints of numbers and other common parts of pop culture.  He was born in Georgia and grew up in South Carolina. 

Kindergarten students discussed how numbers are important in our world and practiced drawing numbers and letters. 

Students looked at various artwork and discussed the principal of art, Emphasis.  What is the most important part of an artwork?  What do you see first?  How do artists create emphasis?

Can you see the sparkly part that students chose to emphasize?

Kindergarten Clay Frames

I enjoy introducing a clay project to Kindergarten students.  Their excitement for the clay is contagious.  No matter what the product ends up looking like, students learn so much by just getting their hands dirty and working with a 3-dimensional sculpture material.  We discuss the many steps involved with clay making and students are always intrigued with the kiln.

Kindergarten students created clay slabs (flat, thin pancakes) and cut a hole out of the center to make a frame.  Students experimented by stamping various objects into the clay to create texture. 

Clay can sometimes be difficult and unforgiving.  There were a couple broken frames, but I only used this as a lesson in adaptability and process over product.  Students will have no problem gluing their creations together after the glaze firing.

Kindergarten Clay Beads

Kindergarten students can name all the 3d forms, cylinder, sphere, cube, etc.  They made beads out of clay and created colorful functional necklaces.

Kindergarten Totem Pole Sculptures

Kindergarten students learned about the Pacific Northwest Native Americans. Students discussed 3d artwork and made paper sculptures that hang together to make one totem pole.

Kindergarten paintings

During a 3rd grade field trip to the Picasso to Warhol exhibit, I took a moment to acknowledge Jasper Johns and his number artwork. Thanks Jasper!

Jasper Johns was an American painter associated with the Pop Art movement due to his subject matter that often involved pop culture. He is most famous for his painting of the American flag, but he also did a series of paintings of numbers.

Kindergarten students practiced drawing thier initials and numbers and created a watercolor resist.

Kindergarten

Kindergarten students began their first lesson by reading The Spider Weaver by Margaret Musgrove and Julia Cairns. Students also read The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle. Students used many lines and shapes to create a colorful spider web, complete with collage spider.