Warm & Cool Leaves

These are always a fun and easy fall project. 

Kindergarten and 1st grade students use oil pastels and tempera cakes to create textured paper using warm and cool colors. After the paint dried, we learned how to cut leaf shapes from the warm paper and collaged them onto the cool backgrounds. The final step was to use neutral colors to add details like veins on the leaves and motion marks in the background. Always love seeing these! 

 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

 I recently shared a video I made for my online classes on how to create a “Very Hungry Caterpillar” collage using painted paper or construction paper. Check it out, share with your students, or make one yourself! :)

Heartworks

Kindergarten texture hearts are always a favorite project! We use oil pastels and texture sheets to create a paper background showing implied texture. Then we used Crayola Model Magic on texture plates to create the hearts. Super simple one-day project, gorgeous results! 

The Very Busy Spider

Because you HAVE to wear a spider dress with this lesson. ^_^

This lesson is a new addition to the kindergarten curriculum this year as a study of secondary colors. I adapted this lesson after seeing it on Artolazzi's blog. We started by mixing secondary colors from primary colors and used texture combs to make the papers more interesting. I cut their papers into different shapes before we painted so that they could be used for the spider's body, head, and legs. 

The following week, we worked together to cut the oval body, circle head, and stick legs for our spider. We used horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines to create a spider web drawing for our spider's home. Adorable, will definitely do again! 

Kandinsky Marker Paintings

I tried out a new technique in kindergarten and first grade this year. We were using diffusion to create paint from washable markers. After viewing the works of Kandinsky, we used Sharpie markers to trace circles and rulers for straight lines. Then we outlined those with primary colored washable markers. After the lines had color, we used wet paintbrushes to spread the colors. 

They loved the magic of water and markers and we got an introduction to color mixing when the colors overlapped. 

How to Draw a Mouse...with letters

Someone AGES ago asked me to share how we draw our mice for our Mouse Paint lesson in kindergarten. I have uploaded the directions to my TPT for FREE! Go get it if you want it! Make some adorable mice! Learn about primary colors! Follow the link here. 

Textured Hearts

One of my favorite new lessons this year comes from kindergarten! As we explore the elements & principles of art, we created textured hearts on textured paper. I don't have many in-progress pictures of this; kindergarten moves faster than my camera.

We started by using oil pastels on texture sheets to create a textured piece of paper. Then we used Crayola Model Magic to create the hearts. First we pressed them into the texture sheets, then used heart-shaped cookie cutters (yes, this is a literal "cookie cutter" lesson) to cut out the hearts. So this could be adapted to any shape, depends on what kind of cookie cutters you have. The kids were amazed and the results are gorgeous. Can't wait to do these again next year. 

And a bonus surprise: I was going to glue these to their papers when they dried, so I had the kids set their hearts on their papers to keep them together. The hearts stuck to the papers, so I didn't have to glue them! :D 

Monet's Water Lilies

I am so proud of how far our kindergarteners have come this year. We are getting into more complex projects and carrying things over from week to week. This is one of their first multi-step projects.

We started by looking at Monet's Water Lily pictures and identified the colors we saw. Then we used lines and cool colors to create watery backgrounds with oil pastels and paint.

Then next week, we learned how to draw lily pads and how to create water lilies from coffee filters. (I really have to start uploading videos for these things!) 

Kindergarten Apples

September 25^th was Johnny Appleseed day. Since we were practicing cutting and gluing in kindergarten, I decided to change the lesson for my class that day to incorporate what they had been studying in class.

We drew an apple together. I gave them a red piece of paper, and white, black, and red crayons. We looked at a picture of an apple while we drew. We started with a big circle. Then we added a “smile” where the stem goes. After that, we looked at highlights and shadows, something I didn’t think kindergarten could understand, but Mrs. Creasy at Wish Upon a Paintbrush inspired me with her fantastickindergarten apples that you can find here.

After adding highlights and shadows, we used a red crayon to add lines that gave the apple some more depth. 

Then we cut a brown stem and a green leaf from paper scraps.

Once it was all cut, we glued our apples to green paper and decorated the backgrounds.

I loved how these came out and I hope the parents love having them to decorate for the season. ^_^

Mouse Paint for Kindergarten

We practiced color mixing in Kindergarten this week. We watched the video on YouTube (you know how I feel about reading stories) and then drew three mice. I told them to draw an "oval with a pointy end" like a teardrop on its side. Then we added 4 legs, an eye, a nose, a tail, and two ears. They followed along pretty well and their mice turned out really cute. ^_^

Then we used tempera cakes to paint our mice. We painted each one in a primary color, then mixed the secondary colors as dots around the mice. It was really hard to get them to RINSE their brushes between colors. But that's why we use tempera cakes. Easy to clean, no need to stress. Plus, I think they learn more from their table mates being upset about dirty colors than me telling them, so they'll get it eventually. 

Line Scapes

my kindergarten classes have been working on "Line Scapes", which are landscapes, seascapes and cityscapes made from our 8 kinds of lines: swirly, bumpy, zig-zag, wavey, loopy, horizontal, vertical and diagonal. so we learned the 8 lines and what to call them. the kids got to make the horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines with their bodies.we also talked about how to use them, "If i wanted to make a mountain, what line could i use?". i also showed them paintings of a landscape, seascape and cityscape and we learned the names of those. you get a lot of "mountainscapes" and "buildingscapes" at first, but eventually they get it.

so the first day, we learn the names and make them out of pipe cleaners *note to self. never underestimate the need for the phrase "careful, it may poke you in the eye"* did not think that was an issue with pipe cleaners until a girl stabbed herself in the eye on the first day. nothing serious. 

the kids really liked being able to play with something and get a real "feel" for the lines. also, "don't put that in your mouth" is something i had to say more than i would like.

on the second day, we draw all 3 Line Scapes together, on line at a time. they didn't color anything in, because the next week, we were going to use paint to make a resist over the crayons.

here are some finished works:

 

 

 

 

 

 

even if they didnt all stay in the lines, they got some nice resists and beautiful color use! i love these!