Category Archives: Kindergarten

The Magic Pear: Easy Drawing Project for Kindergarten

Posted on by
The Magic Pear by Morgan Sweeney

The Magic Pear by Morgan Sweeney

If you want an easy art lesson or sub plan that kindergarteners will LOVE, try The Magic Pear.

The Magic Pear by Morgan Sweeney has 12 step-by-step drawing lessons, all beginning with the basic pear shape.

First of all, I cut a set of pear tracers. It took 20 minutes to make 30 tagboard tracers (tip: I was able to stack my tagboard and cut three pears at a time).

When the kindergarteners arrived, I gave each student a Magic Pear tracer, a piece of copy paper and a pencil.

Kindergarteners used the Magic Pear tracer for directed draws, and as a basis for their own drawings.

Kindergarteners used the Magic Pear tracer for directed drawing, and as a basis for their own drawings.

 

The Magic Horse

The Magic Cat and the Magic Horse

We folded the copy paper. They traced the Magic Pear, then added features in a directed draw. Together we made a cat and a mouse. Then the students created their own art using the Magic Pear. The kindergarteners created a total four Magic Pear drawings, one on each page of their little books.

Kindergarten Magic Pear drawing

Imaginative! The Magic Skull!

Imaginative! The Magic Skull!

All ready to color with crayons!

You really don’t need the book to do this art lesson. Just make up some Magic Pear tracers and come up with your own drawing activity. Trust me, the kindergarteners will love it!

Enjoy!

 

If the Dinosaurs Came Back for Kindergarten

Posted on by

If the Dinosaurs Came Back by Bernard Most

Kindergarteners LOVE dinosaurs. Here’s a 100% successful project based on the book  If the Dinosaurs Came Back by Bernard Most. I saw it on this post on the Elementary Art Room! blog.

BFDVL3FX_full.png

Materials:

  • White paper, 9″x12″
  • Sharpies
  • Colored construction paper
  • Scissors
  • Glue sticks

 Day 1: Read the book, talk about lines, draw the background

If the Dinosaurs Came Back by Bernard Most

Look at all those lines! I can see zig zag, vertical, horizontal, diagonal, wavy….

We read the book, noting the many rectangular buildings and windows. It was an opportunity to practice all the lines we have learned in kindergarten so far. We could see wavy, zig zag, diagonal, vertical, horizontal, dotted and dashed lines in the illustrations. Next we drew the background with Sharpie.

If the Dinosaurs Came Back - Day 1

Day 1: create a background city.

 

Day 2: Dinosaur Collage

I passed out colored paper scraps to each table. There were only two rules: the dinosaur had to be at least as big as your hand, and it had to be one color. The kids used glue stick to create the collage, then added more details (and more lines, shapes and patterns) with Sharpie.

if the dinosaurs came back 5 If the Dinosaurs Came Back 4

This year Common Core is creeping into our curriculum, even in the art room. We’re encouraged to incorporate literature into everything. I was thrilled to do 100% successful lesson that emphasized line and shape AND tied in to a book. Hurray!

Enjoy!

 

Felt Food Collage

Posted on by
felt food collage New Children's Museum

Second grader’s food collage includes a carrot, egg and celery.

Are you looking for an engaging collage project? Try this ‘feast on a plate’ felt food collage project from San Diego’s New Children’s Museum.

I recently toured the Museum’s new food-themed exhibit FEAST: The Art of Playing with Your Food. I found a group of children at an art-making station, happily creating their own collage feasts out of colorful cut felt. I saw felt eggs, bacon, celery, blueberries, and mini-waffles all arranged and glued to paper plates.

Third grader's plate includes bacon and mini-waffles created from felt and other fabric scraps.

Third grader’s plate includes bacon and mini-waffles created from felt and other fabric scraps.

The New Children’s Museum has this lesson plan online, complete with connections to nutrition, visual arts and common core standards. Click here for the Eat More Art! 60-minute food collage lesson plan.

Food sculptures made by rolling fabric and wrapping with yarn.

Food sculptures made by rolling fabric and wrapping with yarn (teacher example).

This would be a fabulous idea for a Thanksgiving feast art project!

Whether you are a parent or a teacher, be sure to check out the New Children’s Museum when you visit San Diego. The museum offers art-making activities for children EVERY DAY. I wrote more about the museum in this post and this post.

Enjoy!

 

 

 

No-Mess Kindergarten Line Art

Posted on by

 

No-Mess Kindergarten Line Art

Are you looking for a nice line art project for your kindergarteners? Check out this project from Marcia Beckett at Art is Basic.

It is a great project. On the first day, our students watched a brief video about different kinds of lines. Then they used black marker to make a variety of lines on their papers.

On day 2, the students colored in and around their lines with Crayola markers. We had a few minutes to spare at the end of class, so we did a ‘line hunt’ in the classroom. The kids were delighted to find the horizontal lines everywhere, including the wires of my drying rack and my window blinds!

No-Mess Kindergarten Line Art 3

No-Mess Kindergarten Line Art 2

Here is my kindergarten line movie playlist on YouTube.  (note: two of these movies are silent!)

Enjoy!

Too Much Glue! Collage for Kindergarten

Posted on by

too much glue collage for kindergarten

Here is a fun and easy kindergarten collage project based on the new book, Too Much Glue.
.

Too Much Glue by Matt LeFebre, 2013.

 

Materials:

  • construction paper 12″x18″
  • scissors
  • glue sticks
  • construction paper crayons
  • homemade glue sponges, one per table
  • colored paper scraps (we used origami paper scraps)
  • photocopies of ‘glue suit’ clothing template (click here for pdf)

Day 1: Read book, begin portrait

Read the story. Pass out paper clothing. Students cut out the paper suit and use glue stick to glue it in the center of the construction paper (this is a great opportunity to assess your students cutting skills).

Use construction paper crayons to make face, hair, hands and feet.

Day 2: Create collage clothing

In the story, Matty used so much glue that everything stuck to him. For our project, we collaged our paper clothes with pieces of colored paper. Kindergarteners had success using our new glue sponges for collage.

glue sponge shared at a table

Kindergarten results:

Kindergarteners use paper scraps, template and glue sponge to make collage portraits. Allow two 40 minute classes.

Kindergarteners use paper scraps, template and glue sponge to make collage portraits. Allow two 40 minute classes.

too much glue collage

(You know what?  I think that free downloadable glue suit template would be a great start for a scarecrow collage project)

Enjoy!

 

Note: I received an advance copy of ‘Too Much Glue’.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...