Monsters are always a popular subject for my youngest art students. My go-to monster lesson for this age group has always been Where the Wild Things Are, but this year I looked for a new source of monster delights. Enter Monsters Love School by Mike Austin. In the running for a monster related story was If You’re A Monster And You Know It by Ed and Rebecca Emberley But in the end … Read More →
Chicken Little is a folk tale about a chicken who believes the world is coming to an end. Those who study tales in school may have already found ways to incorporate this character into the art room but if you haven’t, here is my version… After reading Ed and Rebecca Emberley’s version, the children identified the various colors and shapes in the illustrations of both Chicken Little and Henny Penny. I … Read More →
Are you in the mood for some warm weather colors? I thought so. Although I LOVE the holiday colors and winter art projects, sometimes you need a change of scenery. My little Kinders created these amazing pear paintings in the fall using pre-mixed colors and inspiration from various artists. I researched pear still-life paintings and found a lovely Cézanne, a Van Gogh and a few pieces from new artists. I placed … Read More →
Need a quick and easy 40-minute art lesson for your Kinders or first grade class? For the last day of my Fall rotation, Kinders created these adorable thanksgiving turkeys. I hadn’t done a guided drawing lesson with this group yet, but since they have all settled down and have become quite good listeners, I figured a directed line drawing lesson was due. You’ll need a 12″ x 18″ piece of sulphite paper, black oil … Read More →
These happy flowers were a perfect introduction to art for my Kinders. Drawing with pastels, painting with puck tempera and creating dots, lines and patterns with black and white paint covered many art standard basics. Here’s what we did: Using a black oil pastel on large paper (18″ x 24″), Kinders drew a circle in the middle of the paper. Then, they drew a larger circle around the first circle. … Read More →
I don’t always see my Kinders in the first art rotation of the year but when I do, we always make some type of pumpkin project. I love this Funny Face Pumpkin for the sheer cutest factor but one of my favorites is the Starlight Pumpkin we did a couple of years ago. This year, I adapted one of my favorite first grade lessons, Autumn Collage, to meet the skill set of my Kinders. This … Read More →
The Cat at Night by Dahlov Ipcar is a perfect read for the art room; beautiful illustrations, easy text and a great example of silhouettes. I spent an afternoon coming up with a few lessons and some were quite interesting (painted houses and silhouette backgrounds) but because I wanted to use the art lessons for my first graders, the lessons needed to be simple. And I knew most first graders loved cats! … Read More →
