Lines

Oh, wow.  This is the second post in a row from Art is Basic that you need to check out.  You should just subscribe to her blog!

Kindergarten Lesson- I Am Special

I just came across this lesson.  Kindergarten slippers.  I love it!  Check it out over on the blog:meartsed

Cardboard Sculptures

My preschool itty bitties recently visited the sculpture garden outside the National Gallery (a perk of living near DC!), and so we reviewed what they saw on their trip.  We've talked about sculpture before and they learned the sculpture song.  So these little ones can tell you exactly what a sculpture is.

They made cardboard sculptures out of egg cartons, paper rolls, odd cardboard packing materials, and scrap cardboard.  The next week they painted the sculptures.

 The little girl on the left of this video, had the sculpture song stuck in her head and sang it repeatedly.  I got so tickled.  She was happy to let me film as she sang.

Spring Bonnets - Post 2

I didn't have time for the little video I planned on showing.  I also need to come up with a better way to tie the hats on.  (I'll have to look and see how Phyl solved that one.)  Thanks for the idea, Phyl.  It was a hit!

Spring Bonnets

This is from Phyl's blog, "There's a Dragon in My Art Room."  I want to teach this lesson to my itty bitties today, so I am parking this link and photo in my blog so I will remember it!  Check out Phyl's blog if you haven't already.  She always seems to have such wonderful ideas.

I'm going to show the kiddos this video showing doggies wearing bonnets.  (I will key it up slightly past the beginning credits that say something about blessed Easter. )

Masks......Finished

 Last week we painted the plates with the eye holes cut in them. This week we used the fancy scissors to cut shapes out of the shiny paper.  We glued feathers on.  We used glitter.  We added streamers.  What fun!

Paper Strip Sculpture

Some of my lesson plans for preschool are derivative of what I am teaching my kinders.  Kindergarteners were learning paper sculpture techniques last week.  My preschoolers did something similar, but they learned fewer techniques.

We discussed again what sculpture was, and we sang our sculpture song.  (I'll try to remember to do a post on the song soon.) 

I showed them how the paper strips had trouble standing up on just the tiny edge of the paper.  Then I showed them how we could fold "feet" on the ends and that would support the strips. 

They worked on their own and discovered that they could make circles, arches, and bumpy lines.  Many called their pieces "playgrounds" or "parks."  Some just played with the shapes and did not name them.  It will be interesting to see how the build on what they learn when they are in kindergarten.  I am also interested to see if they will use their imaginations to create new worlds as they age, instead of just making paper shapes.

Straw Sculpture

This is from the blog:  Little Preschool on the Prairie.

Drug Out by Dragons

Looking at my photo disk, I am surprised to see so many dragon photos. There are more dragon lessons that I did not even photograph. Chinese New Year coincided with the third grade study of China this year so there were lots of opportunities for the dragon as subject matter.

Preschoolers made Chinese dragon masks, which all together looked like one big dragon costume.

Third graders made Chinese brush paintings of dragons and foil repousse dragons, for which I have no photos. Ugh.

This dragon puppet was a "door knob lesson." (That means you think of the lesson as you are shutting the door after they arrive.) I had a lesson prepared other than this, but when 3/4 of the class was missing because of testing, I had to think of something fast. This was it.


Art Club kids made clay animals and many chose dragons.



Kindergarten dragons. (Those red tree-like things are firecrackers.)






A third grade teacher asked me to help her think of something she could hang in the hall outside of her classroom. Since they were studying Ancient China, I had her kids work in groups to create dragon murals. These are 5' - 6' long. I suggested that she cut these off of the background and mount them on another paper, or paint the background.






I think I am "dragoned" out now.

Tiny Sculptors and Weavers

Though my school system provides wonderful lesson plans for grades K - 12, we have none for preschool. Our preschools are federally funded programs that happen to be in our buildings. The extras that those programs get, such as music, art and p.e., are at the discretion of the school principals. So I teach whatever I think is appropriate for our tiniest students. The freedom to try my own ideas is appealing. Sometimes I feel as though I am just flying by the seat of my pants though.

I love doing sculpture with them. Kids, in general, don't get a lot of opportunity to use their hands and build in any way, so they really focus in when they get to work three dimensionally. I find that same thing in all grades. Sculpture, clay, and fiber lessons are big hits with the kids.


In this lesson, the kiddies were making sculptures with egg crates, cardboard tubes, and boxes. This group is very young, and as far as I could tell, the sculptures were all non-objective. They seemed to enjoy putting the objects together in any way that pleased them.

Sometimes, when trying to brainstorm what media to present to preschool, I use the ideas that the "big kids" are working on. The uppergrades are doing fiber arts right now. Fifth graders are weaving.


So I made tiny looms for the preschoolers and let them experiment with them.


I didn't give a lot of direction, rather, I let them try things on their own.


This wasn't the greatest lesson, but the kids were engaged. I'll have to figure out a way to build upon that next week.