Kindergarten: Secondary Shapes

The first project I did with kindergarten as I came back from my maternity leave was my secondary shape project.  This one is a staple that I do every year.  This year it didn't change much from last year, other than the fact that I found purple and green metallic paper for the students to use with the gold instead of plain construction paper.

So, here is the gist of what happens and why I like to do this project every year.  This does align with the kindergarten Common Core Math Standards...specifically with the geometry standard of knowing shapes.  This is usually a follow-up lesson to my primary lines project where students are introduced to tempera paint.  This year my substitute did not do the primary lines lesson to teach primary colors...instead she chose to do Mondrian collages instead (which I have yet to photograph and share with you), so this project introduced my kinders to painting with tempera paint.

The first day, we reviewed shapes.  I had the students draw a square, triangle, rectangle and circle on the back of their tag board while I got the paint palettes ready for them.  Next, I demonstrated how to dip just the tip of the brush into the paint before applying it to the paper.  We talked about rinsing the brush off in between colors, how to WIPE the brush on the edge of the water bucket instead of banging it and causing splatter, etc. etc.  I then tell the students that I want them to paint a variety of shapes, including big, small and medium shapes.  While I circulate the room, I tell students to create a good composition by filling the entire paper with different shapes and spreading out the colors they use.

On the second day, I gave each student three sheets of metallic paper.  We review scissor safety and I reviewed how to glue with "just a dot, not a lot" around the edges of each shape.  I have my little kinders glue one shape at a time, holding each shape down with their hand and counting to 10 (great for practicing counting too!).  Again, as I circulate, I encourage students to be creative with their placement of the paper and remind them of using up the entire piece of paper.

I have lots more to share with you...both from my maternity leave and what has been accomplished since I've been back.  This last Friday was the end of our 2nd marking period and I was FINALLY able to catch up on grading and photographing most of the artwork that has been completed so hopefully there will be plenty of more posts this week!

2nd Grade Printmaking Unit: Introduction to Printmaking

My second graders have just finished up their printmaking unit and I've finally gotten around to photographing, grading and uploading all of their artwork to Artsonia!

To kick off the unit, we did a one day project that involved stamping with Legos (I've seen multiple variations of this on Pinterest...).  I took this opportunity to talk to the students about the Principles of Art.  We've talked about them here and there, one at a time, but I felt like this quick project was a great way to get students to think about the principles all together.  We talked about patterns, having balance (symmetrical and asymmetrical), movement, unity, contrast, rhythm, and emphasis.  Now, a lot of these are a little over some of the 2nd graders heads, but none the less, I think some of them really thought more about their composition.

I showed students these simple visual rubrics I made for the project and we talked about each one.  "Is it interesting to look at?  Why or why not?"

This one would be worth 3 points...

This one would be worth 2 points...

This one would be worth 1 point...

 I posted these on the bulletin board int he front of the classroom and gave the students their instructions.  Keeping in mind the principles of art, they had to create an interesting design using different sized and shaped Legos.  They would only get one color, so that had to use placement of their stamps to create an interesting factor to look at.  I gave each table a small plate of finger paint and a small variety of Legos and let them go to town!

Now, even though we spent about 15 minutes going over what makes a good composition, it seemed as if the combination of using Legos and finger paint made all the other points mute.  The outcome of this project was NOT what I had expected!  I had some students smearing their designs together after they finished with their fingers, some only used one Lego for the entire print, and many tried to make actual, representational pictures instead of non-representational like I asked for.  Next time I think I may have to tweak my instructions a bit!