Tall Tales and Art- Summer 2015 (Day 1)

Today was our first day of our summer Tall Tales and Art program. This is a 6 day, 2 hours a day, summer art program that we have at our district art museum every year.

Today's book was Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin.

As in previous years, the children gather on the floor for the story, while the parents have the chairs in the back. A lot of the students had already heard this story, but they had no problem hearing it again. It was a new experience for many of the parents.

After reading the book, I gave a quick explanation of the 3 projects that would be going on and then the students were off!

One room was handprint dragons being made. The students painted their hands with tempera paint (we started with warm colors, but pulled out other colors as the students requested them) and then created the shape of a dragon, using their handprints. They added teeth with scraps of paper and then glued on googly eyes.

 Another room had dragon collages. The students were shown how to fold a piece of paper in half and draw 1/2 of the dragon's head. When this was cut out, they had the entire dragon head (symmetry). They used construction paper scraps, scissors, glue, crayons and oil pastels to decorate their dragons.

The last room had dragon eggs. This was the hit of the day!! Each child received a styrofoam egg and 2 boxes of tacks. The tacks were placed into a piece of corrugated cardboard and then painted with metallic acrylic paint. Due to time constraints, the paint was not completely dry when they started placing the tacks in the eggs. Some students chose to take the tacks home still in the cardboard and place them in the egg when they got home.

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Kindergarten Eric Carle

To begin this project, I showed the students the following YouTube video:



As the video was playing, I had the students focus their attention on how he was painting his tissue papers.

I set up painting stations at the tables. Each table had 1 plate of paint with 1 color of tempera. On the plate, I placed 2 textured rollers that I had purchased from School Specialty:
Textured Rollers 1
Textured Rollers 2
Textured Rollers 3

Each student got 1 piece of tissue paper that I had cut in half (more manageable for little hands). I showed them how to place this onto a piece of construction paper and hold it with their hands on the side (like they hold their cafeteria trays).

 Each student started at a table. They were allowed to roll the brayer 2 times in the paint (I showed them how to count out loud and pointed out that if they rolled more than 2 times, that the paint would run out and there was NO MORE paint!). Then they rolled 2 times onto their tissue paper. The brayers were placed back onto the paint plates.

 They picked up their construction paper/tissue paper, remembering to carry it like their cafeteria tray, and moved to another table. The process was repeated.

 Once they had used all of the colors, they brought their papers to me at the drying rack. Then they were allowed to wash their hands and sit on the carpet.

 As more students finished, I chose students who had finished to help pick up plates and brayers and start the cleaning process.

For the second day, I had cut the dried tissue paper into smaller pieces and sorted them into color tubs.

 Each table had a variety of shape tracers (ovals, circles, squares, rectangles, etc). After reading a few different Eric Carle books, the students chose an insect that they wanted to build using the collage method.

They chose the colored tissue paper that they wanted, traced the appropriate shape and glued the pieces onto a piece of white paper.

 Once their insect was finished, they used the paper to add details: flowers, sun, grass, etc.

 I have these stored for the summer and they will be put on display at the beginning of next year, when the students start first grade.

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PreKinder Monoprint Flowers

The last project that PreK did for the year, was a monoprint project.

I gave each child a 12x18 piece of white paper and asked them to fold it in half.

They used squeeze bottles of paint (red, yellow, blue) and squirted paint on 1 side of the paper, near the fold. I demonstrated how to squirt a SMALL amount of paint and made a big deal about how they shouldn't use too much. After the demonstration, I only had 1 student who went overboard on the paint. Yea!!!

The refolded the paper and rubbed all over with their hands, spreading the paint out from the middle. When they opened the papers up, the "oohs", "wows", "awesomes", and "cools" were music to my ears!

We left these on the drying rack and cleaned up. End of day 1.

The next class, they came back and cut around their paint design. I gave each student a 18x24 piece of construction paper and they glued their "flower" at the top of the paper. Now on to the stem and leaves. I had pre-cut strips of green paper that only needed to be glued on to the paper. For the leaves, I made tracers (not my favorite thing in the world, but I needed to make sure that their leave were large enough for these big flowers). They traced 2 leaves, cut them out and glued them onto their flower.

I have these stored and ready to hang up in August when we go back to school.

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Tall Tales 2014- Elmer the Elephant

Today's book was Elmer by David McKee. 

After reading the book to the children, we started our 3 projects.

One project was a sponge painted Elmer. The students traced a large elephant shape onto a piece of white paper. They used square sponges dipped in paint to paint their elephant. For the sponges, I bought Miracle Sponges from School Specialty. They come in a pack of thin sponges that are easy to cut into whatever shape you want (in this case, small squares). Once they are dipped in water, they expand to their full size.

The second project was an elephant sculpture made out of air dry clay. The student made their sculpture and then placed them onto a piece of cardboard for transport (the parents brought cereal boxes that were cut into manageable sizes). The children painted the elephants with tempera paint. 

The last project of the day was an elephant made out of a milk jug. The jugs were cut in half and we used the part with the handle (this acted as the trunk). The children covered the jugs with tissue paper and watered down glue. They added googly eyes and ears (made out of foam sheets) and then decorated them with yarn, beads, and any other materials they could get their hands on.

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