When is the warm weather coming???
Maybe by making these cute lil' chicks will help!!!

My kindergarten kids LOVE cutting, ripping and gluing so much! They don't even know that all that fun is helping their hand/eye coordination and their small motor skills...he he he.

For the bodies on these chicks I had the kids trace their foot, with their shoe on. We talked about the features that should be on their chicks, including legs and feet.
Just look at the legs on that one! Now those are some drumsticks!!!

I think the feathers on top of their cute little heads add the perfect touch.
Enjoy!!

Today the kindergarten kids had so much FUN looking into a mirror to draw their self portrait! The intense concentration of them peering into the mirror to see what color their eyes are or if they have any freckles that needed to be added to their drawing was an amazing sight to see.

The creativity was pouring out of their little hands as they continued to draw, then some erased over and over to get it "right."

Our school had some happy and proud kindergarteners that left for home today with their masterpieces in their backpacks ready to show off.

You gotta love the enthusiasm!!

Yellow plates, pieces of twine chopped up, some glue and wa-la! Sunflowers! Of course the kinders also added a stem and leaves.

Another kinder class looked at actual sunflowers and re-created them on banner-sized kraft paper using markers. They also needed to draw some sort of border/frame around the whole paper.

These banners looked so awesome hanging together all the way down the hallway!

You know how you have SO MUCH left over paper from cutting and cutting and cutting??!! I decided to turn those scraps into strips that would help teach the kindergarten kids about line. When they first walked into the art room they were given one long strip of paper. Sitting on the carpet area we discussed the types of lines that we saw in the room.

Holding the strip of paper in their hands, we manipulated it to make a curved line, then a wavy line, a zig-zag line, and lastly a loopy line. Obviously, the hardest line for the kinders to make was the zig-zag line. But with some patience and assistants, we all got through it.

A quick demo on where to put the dot of glue and counting until "16" while holding it down. Sixteen is my favorite number and one that the students probably don't usually stop at, which kinda kept their attention.

So, back to their tables to work as I passed out five more strips of different colored paper at a medium pace to fill up the whole hour. Teaching for 14 years has taught me to slow down and do things in little steps for the kinders - they work so quickly!

Oh - the kids thought these creations looked like water slides and roller coasters!!

With all the crud going around the school, I thought it would be fun to have the kindergarten students show us what they thought germs look like! Check these out!!!


And one more...

What are you going to do with all those paper and fabric scraps that get accumulated over the school year? COLLAGE!! The kindergarten kids were so creative and loved cutting up the fabric. The only rule was that they had to make themselves. Some of the kids made the body first, then added the clothes while others dug in right away without making the body. Either way, the project was successful, enjoyable, and made for really no mistakes.

There was a lot of extra clay left over from various projects this year, so I decided to have the kindergarten students make a pendant for their "someone special" on Mother's Day. I cut out the clay into rectangular shapes and they used a variety of items to add the texture. Once fired, I watered down some tempera paints and used a clear varnish over the top once dry. Attached some cord for the necklace and packaged them up in little envelopes with a small handmade card. Lots of Oohhs and Ahhs!!!!

Have you read this great book, The Dot, by Peter H. Reynolds? The story is wonderful. The kindergarten kids love Vashti and her quest on becoming a better artist. After we read the story and discuss it I demonstrate different ways to create a dot. The students use crayons and watercolors to make their own dot paintings and want to keep making more and more!

Fun project for kindergarten! These were so cute hanging in the hallways during conference time, there were a lot of positive comments made by parents.
I took the student's picture while they held a large paint brush and told them to pretend they were painting a large picture - they were in front of my SMARTboard. I then gave each child a 6x8" white paper and told them they could create anything they wanted, I reminded them that they were artists! Using tongue depressors, I glued three together onto a black piece of paper in an A-frame to create an easel. The students glued their artwork on top of the easel and I cut out each student's picture and glued it to the paper to make it look like the they were actually painting their own large canvas. Enjoy!