Kindergarten Calder Sculptures

This project started out with a presentation that I put together about Alexander Calder. The students really enjoyed looking at his art and learning about mobiles. This was something completely different than what they had done in the past.

All of the students started out by tracing basic shape tracers onto construction paper. They cut these out and placed them into an envelope that we had created out of a piece of newsprint.

The next week, the student took markers and decorated all of their shapes with patterns. They used a hole punch to punch a hole in each shape.

Then they chose which project they wanted to build: a hanging mobile or a free-standing sculpture.

For the mobile, the children got a wire hanger. I showed them how to bend the hanger into a fun shape. This was not as easy as it sounds. Some of the children had a difficult time manipulating the thick wire.

They tied pre-cut yarn onto their shapes and then tied the shapes onto the hanger. Before we did this, we had a quick lesson on how to tie a knot.

For the sculptures, I had ordered Foam Carving Blocks from School Specialty. I cut them in half and gave each child 1 piece. Then they were allowed to get 2 pieces of Sculpture Wire. I showed them how to add the shapes to the wire first. Then they twisted the wire to make interesting designs. Each end was poked into the foam block.

Once the wire was in the block, they manipulated it and twisted it more to make it stand up the way they wanted it.

Some issues that I had with this project and which I will need to fix for next time:

1.  The hangers were difficult for little hands to bend.

2.  The shapes that the students used were too big. We will need to use smaller shapes.

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Second Grade Aztec Suns

Continuing with our Latin American projects, second grade did suns inspired by the artwork of the Aztecs.

Everyone began the project by drawing their idea for a sun in their sketchbook. They had to make sure that their drawing was large (one of my focuses for my 2nd graders this year- they love drawing everything tiny!), that it had a variety of patterns and that it used 1 color scheme (they chose from warm, cool or complementary colors.

Once they had finished their preliminary sketch, they chose which project they wanted to work on.

Their first choice was an aluminum bas relief. They drew their sun on a piece of manila that was cut to the size of the aluminum (5 x 5). Then they taped the manila onto the foil and traced the design. They were told to do the tracing while the aluminum was sitting on top of their sketchbook, so that it would leave a nice impression. After tracing, they removed the manila and used their pencil to color in certain sections of their design, creating the bas relief. Color was added with Sharpie markers and then the aluminum was stapled to a piece of black construction paper to create a matt.

The second choice was a printing project. The students drew their design on a piece of 5 x 5 manila paper. They taped this onto a piece of styrofoam that had been cut to the same size. Once the design had been traced, they removed the manila and used their pencil to color in certain sections. They chose pieces of construction paper that fit their color scheme and printed their design onto the paper. The prints were glued onto black construction paper to create a matt.

The third choice was a sculpture project. The students used recycled materials to create a sculpture of the sun that they had drawn in their sketchbooks. I have a variety of boxes outside of the artroom where the faculty can drop off their recycling. I have egg cartons, boxes, newspaper, bottle caps, lids, containers, cardboard rolls, magazines, etc. The students have gotten used to going to these bins anytime they are in need of materials. 

The students collected the materials that they wanted for their sun and stored them in a zip-lock bag. They were glued onto a piece of cardboard (saved from packs of construction paper that the teachers get with the students school supplies at the beginning of the school year) with craft glue (Elmer's is not strong enough for this project). When everything had been glued in place and was dry, they used markers and tempera to color it in their color scheme. The last step was to add details by gluing sequins onto the sculpture.

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First Grade Giacometti

We started this project by doing practice drawings, using the maneqins. The students posed the mannequin and then practiced drawing the basic shapes of the body (lots of ovals) and working on basic proportion. We talked about how the head is smaller than the torso, the leg is larger than the arm, etc.

For this project, we had 2 choices.

The first choice that the students had was making a sculpture. I gave each child a piece of aluminum foil. They cut the foil (Foil armature) and then wadded the foil up to create a basic human figure. They covered the figure with tape and then attached it to a cardboard base.

They used plaster strips to completely cover the figure. Once it was dry, they painted it with tempera paint and then used a contrasting color to add patterns.

The second choice for this project was a collage. The students created a background paper by dripping liquid watercolors onto the page. They used a straw to blow the paint around the paper, filling the page from top to bottom and side to side.

Then they cut out the basic shapes of the human body and glued them on, using either warm or cool colors.

The figures were decorated by using hole punches and scissors to cut out a variety of lines.

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Kindergarten Monsters

This was the second project with my kindergartners where I had choices set up in stations for their project.

I began by reading them one of my new favorite books, I Need My Monster by Amanda Noll. Once we were done with the book, the students were shown all of the projects. I had each project set up at a station with 8 spaces available. Once the spaces were filled, the station was closed to anyone else.

Station 1:

Sponge painting monster-

Students had a tray of paint with sponges. They used the sponges to create a general monster shape on a piece of construction paper.

For the second class, they used a basket of sequins, foam shapes and beads to decorate and add eyes, horns, fingers, etc.

The last day was used to add a variety of lines to their monsters: zig zag, wavy, straight, etc using construction paper crayons.

Station 2:

Marker monsters-

Students drew a monster with pencil and then traced it with black marker. They used the black marker to add lines (wavy, zig zag, etc).

The next class was used to color their monsters with markers.

The last day they decorated their monsters with sequins, foam shapes and beads.

Station 3:

Coffee tin monsters-

Students made a monster out of an International Coffee tin (one of our teachers donated 3 large boxes full of these wonderful tins- with their lids!). I used scissors to cut a mouth shape for the students and then they painted the tin with tempera paint.

The 2nd day was used for decorating with sequins, foam shapes and beads.

The last day, they used construction paper crayons to add lines.

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Kinder Art Eyes

I have done this before with kindergarten, but this year, the students were offered choices in their projects.

We started out by talking about our eyes and what we use them for. Then we talked about how an artist uses their eyes: looking at shapes, colors, lines, etc.

The project was for each child to make their own Artist Eyes. Stations were set up for the children and they chose which station they wanted to go to.

***Disclaimer- I am starting the year with a student teacher (a wonderful young lady who was actually with me for the Spring semester last year in an observing capacity- she was actually teaching most of the classes by the end of the year), she has been a great help getting little kinder students into stations, making sure they stay in their station and clean up when they are done. By the time she is finished with her student teaching and leaves me, the students will have a good understanding of the procedures.

The first station was decorating a set of art glasses. In the past, I had students cut these out themselves before decorating. This year, we gave them pre-cut glasses and gave them the entire time to decorate. They were given a box with a variety of materials (sequins, foam shapes, crayons, etc). They used regular school glue to attach their materials.







The second station was a painting station. They students used tempera cakes to paint a large eye on their paper, using a wide range of colors. They learned how to keep the colors pure, clean their brushes, wipe them on the edge of their water container and clean their materials when they were finished.

The third station was a sculpture station. The students were given a set of egg cartons (cut into sets of 2) and a variety of materials (pipe cleaners, sequins, foam shapes, permanent markers). They used craft glue to attach their materials to make a set of googly eyes.

All of these went on display for Open House when we were finished.

The follow up activity to this was using our own Artist Eyes to look for things in art prints. Tables were given an art print and a list of shapes and colors (the list was laminated). They had a dry erase marker and a sock. Their task was to count the number of squares in the art print and write the number on the shape on the list. They went through the entire list, counting and writing numbers (excellent math practice for beginning of the year kinders) and then got to erase the numbers when they had filled their list.

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Tall Tales and Art- Alphabet City

Today, I actually used 2 books with the students. I started out by showing them the wordless picture book Alphabet City by Stephen T. Johnson.We went through the book and talked about the different letters and where they were found in the city. The smallest children got excited when we got to their initial ("T... That's my letter!).

Then I read them the old classic, Dr. Seuss's ABC.They loved the silly rhymes and had fun yelling out words that started with each letter of the alphabet.

The 3-5 year olds created blinged out letters. I had large letters on hand that the students traced onto a piece of paper. Then we gave them: markers, crayons, foam shapes, colored pasta (food coloring and rubbing alcohol), GLITTER, scissors, glue, tissue paper, etc. This was very open-ended and many of them enjoyed it so much that they created 3 or 4 letters each.

The 6-8 year olds used die cut letters (I found mine at Dollar Tree in their teacher section) to trace onto a piece of paper. They overlapped their letters and then used markers, crayons, glitter, pipe cleaners, tissue paper, etc to decorate them. This was quite time consuming, and it was so quiet when I walked into the room where they were working. They were all so focused on coloring in their letters!

The oldest group of students created a 3D letter (3D Letters). We started out by tracing a letter onto a piece of posterboard 2 times. They cut the letters out and then glued 10 dixie cups (the little ones that you buy for your bathroom) onto on of the letters. After applying glue to the tops of the dixie cups, they placed the second letter on top.

From there, I had a variety of materials on hand for them to decorate their letters: wrapping paper, scrapbook paper, sequins, beads, glitter, markers, crayons. They got quite creative! This was quite time consuming and many ended up having to take them home to finish them.

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