Kindergarten is Buggin Out!

Kindergarten just completed their bug jars.  I normally do this project with second grade; however, a Kindergarten teacher saw my example and requested that I do this project with her class.  I gave the students a jar template and they traced it on grey paper.  After cutting out the jar, we added a lid with holes for our bugs to breathe.  We talked about different objects outside that we can drop into our jar and what bug/insects we can add to that environment.  I try to have them take up as much space inside the jar as possible.  We have bugs that crawl and fly.  We traced all pencil lines with a black crayola marker and colored with construction paper crayons, which is one of my favorite medias to use.  They turn out so bright and cheerful!  The kids love making a big list on the board of all the bugs and insects we can name.

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Picasso’s Guitar

Our guitar project was inspired from the artist, Pablo Picasso.  During a two year period, he made one guitar sculpture, but incorporated guitars into many of his other pieces of artwork.  This was during the cubism style where collage and forms were used.  I got the idea for this project from Hicksville Elmentary School on Artsonia. This project discusses symmetry, texture and geometric shapes.  We started with a brown sheet of paper, used a texture plate underneath the paper and rubbed with brown crayon to give it the “wood” look of an acoustic guitar.  We then folded our paper hotdog style and the students had to draw half of a guitar.  We cut it out and then punched holes in our guitar and added yarn for the strings.  Each student was given a copy of some bluegrass music and they were to incorporate it into their background.  They could cut it apart or cut out shapes.  Lastly, students could add additional musical notes, etc to form a collage.

Cheeseburger in Paradise…I like mine with lettuce and tomato

The first grade has been talking about texture.  Each year we make cheeseburgers (or in some cases, veggie burgers) with french fried potatoes.  We discuss the shape of our hamburger buns, hamburger meat, cheese and toppings.  They have to make sure they understand the difference between a geometric and organic shape.  Then we move onto  texture and how we can make it out of construction paper.  We keep the paper smooth for the cheese, tomato and onion, rip and crumble up the paper for the lettuce and hamburger meat, cut a spiral line for the onion and fold the paper like a zig zag line to make crinkled french fried potatoes.  I save the mustard and ketchup for last.  We mix yellow and red paint to make orange.  This project always makes us hungry!

Colorful Clowns

Kindergarten has been working with shapes and lines to create our colorful clowns.  We talk about the emotions that we feel when we see a clown and what colorful costumes, hair, and makeup they have.  This crayon resist used crayons and watercolor as the media.  We traced all our pencil lines in crayon and then painted in with watercolor.  I also painted with tempera at my other school.  Students tried to cover up all the space on the paper with their clown and polka dots.  Patterns were used on the buttons and stripes.  These creative clowns are always so colorful!