Native American Pottery

This is a fun, easy lesson that the kids really enjoy. We began by discussing why native Americans would make pottery long ago and how it has changed today. We then decorated our own pottery using colored pencils and then cut them out and glued them to colored paper. We looked at modern pots to get ideas for designs.

Read Across America!

As part of Read Across America, our school had a door decorating contest. We had to use Dr. Seuss characters. I had a lot of fun creating mine. Because of all of the focus on Dr. Seuss that week, I decided we had to do an art project that incorporated some of his work.

So, for a few classes, we looked at and discussed the fish in One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.We then created a background in the Dr's style using strips of bright colored tissue paper and then created our own fish, similar to the ones in the book. I showed them step-by-step how to make a swimming fish and a standing-up fish. They drew and colored them in using oil pastels. They were then cut out and glued to the background. This was a lot of fun and, as you'll see, the first graders were very proud of their work:)

Kandinsky Color Diamond

I got this lesson from this site. We bagan by looking at this example of Kandinsky's work. I then

gave each student a 12"x12" square sheet of white drawing paper and had then fold it in half, and then fold it in half again. When they opened it, they had created 4 equal squares. They then began in the center of the paper, in one of the squares corners. Using oil pastels, they started with creating a little triangle and then creating blocks of color from the center out. Some of the kids made patterns with their colors, while others simply used as many colors as they could.

City Under the Moon

This is a great project to help the kiddos practice their cutting skills. They were amazed when I showed them the secret to cutting out squares and rectangles (I showed then you could cut straight strips off the side of their sheet of paper then then cut it in half/thirds/whatever). This project was also fun because we got to splatter paint. With kindergartners, this could get messy really fast, so I did a demo to show exactly how to splatter the paint. I began with the paintbrush about 2-3 inches horizontal above the paper. I then began making "baby karate chops" on the brush and it created little, controlled splatters. Next, I showed how to swirl the paintbrush to create a moon. While this dried, the students worked on cutting out their buildings. I showed them many examples of the different shapes they could make their buildings.

Here are some student's work. Some got pretty creative and added shooting stars all on their own

*Make sure to emphasize that the paint used for the stars and moon is paint, not glue. I don't know how a few of the kids got confused, but they tried to glue down their buildings using the paint.

All-In-One

This project hits it all: Line, shape, and pattern! Simply start by creating a line that goes all over your paper. It will overlap itself, go up and down, make different shapes, and end on the other side of the paper. Then have students identify shapes that they have created. They now have the option of filling in shapes with solid color or a pattern. Encourage plenty of variety and the projects turn out amazing!







Here are a few student examples created by some of my kindergartners

Closet Monster

Then open the door and...

This is such a fun project that the kids loved. I began by having them close their eyes and pretend they were going to bed. They had already put on their pajamas and brushed their teeth. They had just layed their heads down on their soft pillows when ...BAM! (I made some noises by pounding on a desk). I then asked them what it could be. Eventually, someone guessed it was the monster in their closet. I then had them describe to me what their monster looked like. They each then got to create their monster using oil pastels on black construction paper. The oil pastels show up much brighter on the dark paper. Then they drew their door and I then stapled the two together for them.

Resist Jack-O-Lantern

For this project, we began by talking about faces and their features. We then transitioned into faces on jack-o-lanterns. I showed them some examples on the board of how to make one look happy, sad, scary, silly, etc... We then drew our jack-o-lanterns on 8"x8" squares of watercolor paper using orange and yellow crayons. The class then used dark watercolors (black, blue, purple) to paint over the face. They were so amazed by how the crayon created a resist. They all turned out very neat, as they showed such good contrast and made the pumpkins seem to glow.

Thankful Turkeys

This project is similar to what I had the first grade do, as I began with the class sharing what they were thankful for and I drew their answers on the board. I then passed out the pre-cut turkey pieces the the kids to decorate and glue. On each tail feather, they drew something that they were thankful for.

Circle Snowman

Another great holiday project. This works well with teaching small, medium, and large to early grades as they put their own snowmen together using pre-cut circles. Before we began, I had the kids all close their eyes and we pretended like we woke up to a big snowfall (they had to use their imaginations since we live in a warm climate). They shared what they would do in the snow -including making a snowman. Then we sang the snowman song and then discussed the features of snowmen and then I handed out their project supplies. I had them use white oil pastels for the snow because it shows up better on the dark paper.

Rainbow Fish

This project turn out really neat and the kindergartners have a lot of fun. I had them color coffee filters, then we dipped them in water. When they were dry, I cut them into fish shapes for the class while the kids decorated their fish's homes with undersea details. Incorporating the book, The Rainbow Fish, would also work great with this lesson.

These are some of the extra fish, now decorating our classroom