SPRING HAS SPRUNG... ...in the art room at least. Kindergartners have been learning about 3D art. We started this unit off with creating pinch pots - always a K favorite. This is the first year I had students pick a marble and place it in their finished pots after they glazed them. I then fired them in the kiln with the marble in it. This creates a really interesting effect. They were amazed by this, and we all loved how they turned out. We then continued our 3D art making by creating bird forms out of model magic, they added feathers for wings and tails and drew on eyes. The next challenge was to make a nest out of a paper bag - this was a little challenging, but once they got the hang of it they were thrilled. These came out so adorable and to read the names to came up with for their birds just brings a smile to my face. Most recently we have completed a popsicle stick structure. They blew me away with their careful use of a glue bottle. We then painted them and traced these structures onto black paper and filled in the open areas with oil pastels, which was then cut out and glued to the back of the structures. They are so colorful and creative. I can't wait to display them all together. In art enrichment students were shown a video of real robots that do amazing things, before asking them to design their own robot drawing. It was amazing to hear what they wanted a robot to do. One of my favorites was a robot that reads books to you when nobody else wants to. How sweet is that? What's next you ask? We will do one more 3D project which will be paper playgrounds, then we will explore painting like Monet. Stay tuned.
January 2018 Happy New year! Recently students also learned about famous artist Paul Cezanne. We read a book about him and looked at his still life paintings. Students then practiced drawing apples, while carefully looking at apples. I then set up a still life of apples on a plate and had them draw it. They used oil pastels with this project and learned that they could blend colors to make things look more realistic.
I welcomed the Kindergartners back to school with a clay project. This is always a big hit. Students learned where clay comes from, some of it's uses and learned how to create a traditional pinch pot. They loved working with clay and creating a 3D form with it. Ask them about it. Soon we will be adding glaze to them as well.
While we are waiting for the pinch pots to dry, we are continuing our study of careful observation. Learning to look carefully at an object while drawing it is the key to realistic drawing. I set up a bunch of teddy bears for kindergartners to draw. They were first told to put on their "shape glasses", then to carefully study the bear to find what shapes they see. I told them to forget they are drawing a bear, just think about drawing the shapes. They thought this was pretty cool...and we all have shape glasses, by the way.
During our most recent enrichment time, students listened to a variety of music and drew what they heard. They were so focused and really seemed to get into it.
We are busy creating away and they are growing in many ways as little artists!
September It's always very exciting for me to have a new group of students every year. Your kindergartner will learn so much in the art room this year. We will do a lot of exploration with a lot of different art materials. It'a always a joy for me to watch these little artists discover new things, share their passions, and use their creativity.
We are off to a great start! Students are learning how to follow directions, use the art room materials, share and create. We started with a Beautiful Oops! project. This is based off the book Beautiful Oops! by Barney Saltzberg.
This awesome book teaches about how you can turn a "mistake" into something "beautiful". Students "spilled" some paint onto a piece of paper and picked it up and let it drip while turning it or shaking the paper to manipulate the paint. Once they were happy with their spilled shape, they let it dry until the following week. Their challenge was to then turn it into something using crayons, colored pencils and they had the option of googly eyes.. They did a fantastic job and their descriptions of their creations were priceless. To the right you find some pictures and a few with their written explanations.
What a great group of creative little artists I get to teach. This month we focused on lines & patterns. They blew me away with how many different types of lines they knew. Ask your child to show you the gestures for horizontal, diagonal and vertical lines. We focused on the use of different lines & patterns through creating our own fish, inspired by a book I read them, Only One You by Linda Kranz. It has a great message about being yourself, exploring the world around you and making it a better place. They did an excellent job using various lines, showing their own uniqueness and they impressed me with their cutting skills. Here are some pics of all their hard work.
It's Spring....FINALLY! It seems like the art train is in full speed this time of year. So many wonderful things going on. Kindergartners have been working so hard on many wonderful art projects. We read the book Hooray for Fish, by Lucy Cousins, and studied the beautiful fish illustrations to inspire us for this project. Students practiced drawing fish that had patterns on them. They used oil pastels to draw and color their fish, then added water colors for the background. Before the watercolors dried, we sprinkled two different sizes of salt on it. The salt soaked up some of the water, leaving a very cool bubble/coral design. They later created colorful frames to display their fish in.
We also took a look at the differences of paintings of flowers done by Georgia O'keefe and Vincent Van Gogh. Students got to choose which style they wanted to try in creating their own flower art. We used oil pastels and watercolors to create these beauties. Some of them were outstanding!
Kindergartners learned about 3D art while creating clay bear forms, clay pinch pots, paper playgrounds and funky wire sculptures. They seem to especially love this type of art making.
Recently Kindergartners learned how artists create self-portraits. They learned about placement of facial features and more importantly learned how to carefully look and draw what they saw. These came out so great. I am very proud of their progress.
I look forward to seeing many of you at our Share Fair on June 14th. Please be sure to come to the art room to check out their latest creations!
Happy New Year! Welcome 2017! So much has been happening in the art room! Kindergartners have been learning so much about the wonderful world of art. This fall they learned about lines, what they are (a dot that went for a walk, of course) and the various types of line, shapes and how when a line meets up where it started from it creates a shape. They learned about the 3 very special colors that cannot be created; red, yellow and blue and that they are called the primary colors. They learned how to mix these colors to create secondary colors, orange, green & purple. They used their own mixed paint to paint their pumpkins in the moonlight artwork.
We then dove into learning to do an observational drawing by drawing what you see, not what you know about what see. You should see their faces when I asked them to forget they were drawing a teddy bear, and to just look at the lines and shapes that create that bear and draw that! They did an amazing job drawing these teddy bears - really! (I hope you all enjoyed receiving them as a holiday gift during this winter break). After the created this 2 dimensional drawing of a teddy bear, they were then introduced to 3D art through the medium of clay. They learned where clay comes from and how to manipulate it to create a 3D form - a teddy bear. These bears are sure to be cherished. Currently they are still drying and will be fired in the kiln in mid January. They will also be creating clay pinch pots in order to create a functionable form. They LOVE working with clay (most of them) and I must admit, it's one of my favorites as well.
Because Kindergartners get to have an extra art class (K enrichment) once every 3rd week, there is time for additional hands on art making. We currently made tie-dyed looking window ornaments out of giant coffee filters and sprayed washable markers. They absolutely loved this process and thought it was funny that we used coffee filters.
To start off the new year, Kindergartners are learning about an American artist who only died 10 years ago, Laurel Burch. She was famous for her colorful cat paintings. They are learning about patterns and directional drawing through this project.
Please enjoy the photo slide show to the right. It is a joy to teach these young creative minds. Thank you.
Fall 2016 ART Adventures in Kindergarten
The year starts off with a Beautiful Oops!
Kindergartners showed off their creativity on day one! I read them the book Beautiful Oops! Which teaches about how you can turn a "mistake" into something "beautiful". Students "spilled" some paint onto a piece of paper and picked it up and let it drip while turning it or shaking the paper to manipulate the paint. Once they were happy with their spilled shape, they let it dry until the following week. Their challenge was to then turn it into something using Sharpie Markers, colored pencils and they had the option of googly eyes.. They did a fantastic job and their descriptions of their creations were priceless. To the right you find some pictures and a few with their written explanations.
Here's a link to the book/song video that we watch: https://youtu.be/2fZjMYdQjGM
Kindergartners have been creating away. We explored 3 dimensional art forms by creating, cardboard houses, pinch pots made out of clay, (using the "meatball method" - ask them) tied-dye birds, model magic birds and paper bag nests. The art room is looking quite colorful, please be sure to come and check out all their hard work during our special Lyman Lytes Night on Thursday, June 9th!
I hope you all are enjoying your Square One Art products with your child's "fishy" art on them. They did a great job creating their own fishy friends and were super excited about getting their own artwork in sticker form. Thank you for making this fundraiser a success - it all benefits your kids!
Recently they learned about the art of famous impressionist artist, Claude Monet. I introduce the students to him with a cool 3D pop-up display of his house and gardens and teach them a song I wrote about him (ask them to teach it to you, they have been loving it.). Students created wax resist watercolor paintings of his pond and water lilies. Then they explored oil pastels to create a single water lily. These lessons are always a big hit and are among my favorites to teach.
January 2016 - Focus: Shapes - Famous Artist: Hundertwasser WOW, have we been busy. Busy creating art that is. Kindergartners have been discovering their inner artist. We started the new year out by learning about famous artist & architect, Friedensreich Hundertwasser. (the kids know him as Hundertwasser.) We focused on studying shapes while looking at photographs of his colorfully designed houses and buildings. First students built 2D houses using cut up construction paper. They designed their own houses using various shapes, and even added some Hundertwasser inspired details.
Kindergartners showed off their creativity on day one! I read them the book Beautiful Oops! Which teaches about how you can turn a "mistake" into something beautiful. Students picked out a piece of "oops scrap paper" and were asked to turn it into something. They did a fantastic job and their descriptions of their creations were priceless. Below you find some pictures and a few with their written explanations.
Here's a link to the book/song video that we watch: https://youtu.be/2fZjMYdQjGM
2014 Art: March We've been so busy this Spring. Kindergartners glazed their pinch pot creations and I must say they did a great job with this. It's important to apply 3 coats of glaze to achieve a nice bright color and as you can see they certainly came out colorful!
We then created beautiful spring time art for our Square One Art fundraiser. They used markers and chalk pastels on these springy creations. They truly came out beautifully, and I hope many of you get to cherish their art for many years by ordering something from this fundraiser. (Reminder that orders must be placed by Tuesday, May 5th).
February During the month of February we began to explore 3D art. We started out by working with clay. Students made learned the pinch pot and coil method. They all created pinch pots and then used coils of clay to add to their pinch pots in any way they wanted to. They really enjoyed creating with clay and their pinch pot creations came out fantastic! They learned about glazing and saw the kiln where their pieces were fired. These pieces will be on display in the glass cases outside of the art room. Come in and check them out. In the meantime enjoy the pics I have posted here. We also created snails using model magic, and once hardened they used watercolors to paint their swirly creatures. We truly accomplished a lot this month and had a blast doing so.
January Fortunately for Lyman Kindergartners, Art classes are on Wednesdays, so we were able to have all of our classes this month. My poor Monday classes were not so fortunate. This month we worked on creating artwork that was inspired by Lois Ehlert's book "Snowballs". Students learned a unique way to create birch trees by using pieces of cardboard dipped in paint and dragged across paper. They used their secondary coloredpainted papers to create their own bird. They really enjoyed this lesson and got a lot of practice on their cutting skills. Up next: CLAY!
November During November Kindergartners continued their study of shapes by studying the work of famous artist, Paul Klee. Paul Klee's artwork is full of shapes, lines and colors. His work gave students a sense of what abstract art is. We focused primarily on his famous Cat and Bird painting, and created our own rendition using simple shapes and lines. Students worked on their tracing and cutting skills during this lesson and explored a new medium, chalk pastels. They had a great time with this lesson. We also made the traditional turkey hats for Thanksgiving, which of course they just "gobbled" up. Up next month: Color exploration.
Can you spot the Star Wars battle? A spider looking for food? How about the Dunkin' Donuts Tree house? They certainly impressed me with their creativity and wild imaginations.
October We have begun exploring shapes. During October we will be focusing on shapes and the use of them in art. To the right, you can enjoy some photos of them exploring shapes. We also had a special "I am an Artist" ceremony. Each student of mine picked out a bead and slid it onto a branch of my metal wire art room tree, as they did so they had to say "I am an Artist". I explained to my students that each time I look at the tree I will be reminding of all my little artists. It was a very sweet "ceremony" that they took quite seriously. Up next, we will be studying the work of Paul Klee to aid us in shape exploration.
September
What a great group of creative little artists I get to teach. We are off to a great start! This month we focused on lines. They blew me away with how many different types of lines they knew. Ask your child to show you the gestures for horizontal, diagonal and vertical lines. We focused on the use of different lines through creating our own fish, inspired by a book I read them, Only One You by Linda Kranz. It has a great message about being yourself, exploring the world around you and making it a better place. They did an excellent job using various lines, showing their own uniqueness and they impressed me with their cutting skills. Here are some pics of all their hard work.
2014-15 • Kindergartners 1st day in the art room!
Kindergartners showed off their creativity on day one! I read them the book Beautiful Oops! Which teaches about how you can turn a "mistake" into something beautiful. Students picked out a piece of "oops scrap paper" and were asked to turn it into something. They did a fantastic job and their descriptions of their creations were priceless. Below you find some pictures and a few with their written explanations.
"A person throwing a ball up and a dragon fly trying to catch it."
"A little golden retriever dog."
"Dinosaurs and two pterodactyls named Peatree and Quetsi".
2013-14
Lyman staff portraits done by Kindergartners.
MAY The kindergartners did an outstanding job on drawing portraits of our staff. It brought tears to my eyes to see how much they learned about drawing portraits. I think you will be amazed. This month we focused on learning about famous impressionist artist Claude Monet. We took a visual tour through his famous gardens where he would spend his time painting countless paintings of his pond. He painted over 200 paintings of it! He was especially passionate about his waterlilies and the way the natural light effected them. The kindergartners then dove in and created beautiful impressionistic crayon resist works of art of what inspired them from looking at Monet's work. Following this we then took an aerial view look at a waterlily and created one using colorful tissue papers. They really seemed to love this new learning. Be sure to ask them to sing you the little song I wrote about Monet and his garden, they really loved it! Here are the lyrics so you may learn it too.
Monet's Garden (Sung to the tune of Mary had a little Lamb)
Monet planted a garden, a garden, a garden Monet planted a garden to paint just what he saw
Weeping Willows, cherry trees in the breeze waterlilies float on water with such ease it was so peaceful there.
APRIL Time flys when you're having fun, but where is spring? The kindergartners have been working really hard on learning about drawing portraits. In March they finished up their self-portraits. We did our first class art critique and looked at all of the self-portraits as a group. They were amazing at pointing out positive aspects of everybody's art and they seemed to really be motivated to continue this learning. They continued doing some practicing (especially on noses) and were then ready for the next challenge...to draw a portrait of one of the staff members here at our school. Once these are finished they will be shared at an assembly in May.
MARCH The beginning of March we finished up adding non-traditional colors to our self-portraits and described what emotion or mood that color made us feel. Since we are doing the Artware fundraiser, I chose to teach a lesson about Van Gogh, with specific focus on his flowers in vases paintings. They are turning out great and you will receive a photocopied image of your child's work, so you will know what you are ordering. I'm excited about this fundraiser and the kids are too!
FEBRUARY During February we finished up making recognizable images using basic shapes. I loved the creativity! The rest of the month we worked on drawing self-portraits, using mirrors to really study the shapes we see. This lesson was paired up with the Dr. Seuss book My Many Colored Days, because of this I had them use watercolors to paint their faces in a non-traditional color to portray a mood or emotion. They really seemed to enjoy this.
January
During the month of January the kindergarteners glazed their pinch pots and now they are shiny and colorful and ready to be displayed. They came out great! We then moved on to learning about the art of Wassily Kandinsky (ask them how they were taught to remember his name). We noticed all of the geometric shapes and use of lines in his artwork. They used his work to inspire their own abstract art creations using lines, shapes and a lot of colors. The focus remained on shapes for another project, but this time they were to cut out shapes and arrange them in such a way to create something recognizable. They are quite creative so far, and will be finished up in February.
DECEMBER This month was a crazy month for our kindergarteners, as they missed having art class two weeks in a row due to snow days! They did get to be introduced to clay and created pinch pots, which will be glazed in January and on display for a while after that. They absolutely LOVE working with clay, and I do too!!!!
NOVEMBER During the month of November the kindergarteners learned more about primary colors through painting with them and then mixing them to get the secondary colors. They had a blast mixing the colors on large paper rolled out to cover the tables. The next project incorporating using the paper they created the secondary colors on. Spiders on webs was what they created. They came out fantastic and the kids really seemed to enjoy creating their own spider friend. Right before Thanksgiving, the former Lyman Art Teacher, came in to create turkey hats with them. This has become a tradition now. I'm sure you kindergarten parents got a kick out of these.
OCTOBER This month has brought us to drawing apples by drawing what we see. We took a look at real apples and talked about all the different shades of colors you can see in just one apple. Once they had drawn and colored at least 3 apples we took a look at some famous still life paintings of apples by the famous Paul Cézanne. The final project was then to color and cut a bowl, choose "table cloth" and create "wall paper" by creating crayon rubbings with textured templates. They came out really nicely. Below is a slideshow of some of them with their apple drawings and some of the finished products. Enjoy! They have been anxious to work with paint, so our next project will incorporate painting for sure. Hope to see and meet many of you at our Family night on Oct. 24th. Be sure to stop by the art room! SEPTEMBER It's always exciting to begin a new school year with fresh new young faces. It's been a pleasure getting to know these Lyman Kindergartner's. We started the year out talking about the word "Peace" and what it means to us. They learned that a dove is one symbol for peace and that a long time ago (in the 60's) that people who really wanted to spread peace wore tie dyed fabrics. So, we tied those peaceful things together by creating peace doves (practicing our cutting skills) and created tie dye like circles using washable markers on coffee filters and then sprayed with water. They LOVED this project, as did I. Lastly, they were asked how their peace dove spreads peace and their answers were adorable!!! Come in and read them!