Kindergarten Class Art Project Created for a School Auction

Every year we are asked to make a project or two that can be auctioned off during our fundraising events.  This year I wanted to make a project that showcased the individuality of each of my students yet that looked beautiful when assembled together.

I began by giving each of my kids a 5x5 inch piece of white card stock.  I put out different colors of paint and asked each child to pick a color and paint a small circle in the middle of the paper.  From there they painted petals and more circles and anything they wanted to make a flower as unique as they are.

After the flowers dried, I used a fine point sharpie to write their name on the edge and then I cut them out.  I got a big piece of black mat board and arranged the flowers as if they were sitting in a vase.  I cut a simple vase out of scrapbook paper and attached it to the mat board along with the flowers.  I kept the backgrounds dark so the flowers would pop out.

Look at how beautiful and unique each flower is!  The kids had so much fun making them!

Needless to say, the art project was a hit and fetched a pretty penny at the auction.  There was a bidding war but now it is hanging on one lucky home to be enjoyed for years to come.

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Animal Habitats- Combining Art and Science

We've been learning about animals and their habitats these last few weeks.  

I've been incorporating a lot of art during our lessons and my kids have been loving it!

After learning about water habitats, I did a directed draw with my kids and then we painted with watercolors.  Here are a few of our fish paintings.  Aren't they cute?

The bubbles crack me up.  I didn't tell them to do that, one child added them and I commented about how cute it was and then, wouldn't you know it, all of the other kids started drawing bubbles too.

(That's the magic of kindergarten)

Here are animals in a different habitat- The Savannah

To make these we drew lions together with black crayons.  When the lion was done, I told the kids to use a brown crayon to color in the mane and tail.   I then mixed up a nice yellow/brown and the kids painted their lions.

Some did the lion and the background in the same brown color (for camouflage) and others used the green paint (because it was spring).  Love how these kids justify their color choices!

These are super fun and really easy. 

The combination of crayon and paint gives a nice mixed media effect.

It always amazes me how I can guide them through the drawing one step at a time and all of their pictures come out so dramatically different.   The personality of the artist really shines through.

I just had to share these because I think they are so cute.  They make me smile each time I look at them.

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Mouse Paint Fun

My kids are wonderful artists!  I love it when they just let loose and let the art flow.  No preconceived notions of what art needs to look like.   (Kids are wonderful that way)

Here is a fun color mixing lesson that isn't anything new, but I wanted to share how I do it with my kiddos.

We read the book Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh and then we use cotton balls to represent the mice.  

I squirt red, blue and yellow paint onto a 12x12 sheet of white paper and let the kids use 3 cotton balls as the 3 mice in the story.  We spread the colors around and mix the edges together  making the colors or orange, purple, and green when they meet.  The kids have so much fun working on the big paper and the cotton balls make perfect mice (and they keep the kids relatively clean).

Here is what our finished paintings look like.  I drew 3 mice on white paper and the kids cut those out and put them onto their papers.  They used Sharpies to draw the tails and whiskers.  

Here is our classroom bulletin board. 

You can see how some kids loved to fill the paper with the paint and how some kids were more reserved.  I gave them a large canvas (12x12) to work with.   I think it's important to give the artist choice and to let them make their own interpretation of the assignment.

So, there you go.  Get out your paints and cotton balls and let your kids mix some colors.  It's fun and the results are so beautiful.  (I liked them even without the mice.)

Happy painting!

1 comment Art, Bulletin Boards, Fun Stuff

Valentine's Day

Are you looking for an inexpensive and super cute Valentine idea for your class?  This is what I do for my kids every year and they LOVE it!

I simply collect the old broken crayons from the previous year and then I peel off the wrappers and melt them in a silicone baking tray.  I make mine into heart shapes, but you could choose any shape that you want.  Once you use the baking tray to make the crayons, it is no longer viable for food so keep that in mind.

I let my kids choose the crayon that they want.  They have so much fun coloring with these because it is always a surprise what color will rub onto the paper.  I put the extra crayons in my writing center along with sight words or CVC words that I want them to practice writing.  The novelty never gets old.

Happy Valentine's Day!

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Teacher Deals and Dollar Steals- Portrait Templates

I'm blogging over at Teacher Deals and Dollar $teals today to bring you one of my top selling products for mere dollar!  If you don't know Teacher Deals and Dollar $teals yet,  we are a group of K-5 teachers that offer daily discounts and freebies on some of our best selling products.  Make sure to follow the Teacher Deals and Dollar $teals blog and Facebook so you won't miss out on any great deals.

So here is my DOLLAR STEAL for this month.

I'm putting my Portrait Templates on sale for the next 3 days.  These can be used by the kids as a base for a self-portrait.  I use these during the first week of school to have the kids draw a self-portrait.  I use these self-portraits as the cover for their writing folders.  At the end of the year, I give the kids another portrait template and they draw themselves again.  The difference in how they draw themselves between the beginning of the year and the end of they year is amazing!

I don't just use these at the beginning and end of the year, I give these to the kids to illustrate characters in the stories that we are reading.  They also use them to draw their family members as gifts for Mothers and Fathers Day presents.  I give them one of these to draw themselves as a writer and I slide this into the cover of their writing binder.


There are so many different uses for these...

I would love to hear how you use these in your classroom!  

And here is my FREEBIE for you.  

Simply print the eggs on card stock, laminate and cut them out, then place them in a center with a real spatula and small skillet (I use the plastic skillet from my housekeeping center).  The kids love to scoop the eggs with the spatula, place them in the pan to cook, say the word when it is finished cooking, then scoop it out of the pan and onto a plate to serve.  

I slid the recording sheet into a page protector and placed a thin dry erase marker at the center.  Kids write the word on the egg that they just cooked.  Now they are getting practice reading AND writing the sight words.  My kids LOVE this activity!!

Thanks for stopping by!

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Leave a Comment Art, Back to School, Teacher Deals and Dollar Steals

Graduation

In my school district, we don't have graduation ceremonies, well, really we do, we just don't call them graduations.   Instead we call them promotion ceremonies.  

At my school we don't even call it a promotion ceremony,  we call it a "Celebration of Success."

I teach at an all Kindergarten school.  When kids promote from my school, they go off to their next school where they will stay from 1st through 5th grades.

It's a bittersweet time because we teachers grow so close to the kids and their families and unlike traditional schools, we won't see them as they grow.

That is the one thing that I really miss.  I miss saying hi to the kids and their parents and hearing about what things they are up to.

Here are photos of my Graduation Kids Glyph.  My kids robe color is determined by the school that they will be attending next year.  They are holding either a book or a pencil, depending on if they like reading or writing the best.  The shoes denote how they go home after school each day.  The tassel color tells if they are a boy or girl.

After we complete the glyph we analyze the data.  It's a lot of fun and the parents think it's super cute.  By doing this glyph the kids learn who will be going to the same school as them next year.

I have adapted the glyph to be used by any school.  Take a look at the preview.

Leave a Comment Art, Bulletin Boards, Fun Stuff, Glyphs, Math

Farm Animal Reports

We have just returned from Spring Break (two weeks!) and are plowing into our Farm Unit.  

We will learn about different animals including horses, cows, pigs, sheep and chickens during this unit.  As we learn about each animal we will write a report.  Our final project will be one big book with a page for each animal.  This is a snapshot of what each page will look like.

We draw the animals on construction paper and then cut them out and mount them on a different color of 12x18 paper next to the final report.

When we are all finished, I will bind them into one large book for each child.

Click on the photo above to get the report, or click on this link.

We take a field trip to our local dairy.  We get to see the cows in their barns, sleeping on their water beds and getting milked in the milking parlor.  The dairy even gives us ice cream as a fun treat.

We will end our study of the farm by having a Rodeo Day where we wrap up the unit.

On this day kids dress in the best western wear and bring their hobby horses to school.  They make and eat chicken scratch by pecking like a chicken -no hands allowed!

They make purple cows- yum!  Have you ever had one?  It's a grape float.

They do barn dancing,  barrel racing,  milk a cow,  rope a steer, help Mrs. Wishy Washy clean mud off of animal (well, chocolate pudding off of animal crackers) and pet small animals in the petting corral.  It's a super fun day.

Leave a Comment Art, Common Core, Literacy Actvities, Science, Writing

Adding Doubles- Spring Math Fun

Here is a fun spring craftivity.  I don't know who came up with the name "craftivity" but I sure do love it.

As we are studying insects for science we are also learning about adding doubles in math.  I have combined the two into this cute craftivity.

Kids make a ladybug then roll the dice to find out how many spots to add.  You don't have to add doubles really, they could also just roll the dice and put that many spot on one side, then roll again and put that number on the other side then add the total.

Lots of possibilities and lots of fun!  Happy spring!

Leave a Comment Art, Bulletin Boards, Fun Stuff, Math, Science

Love

Remember how I said that I have a love/hate relationship with tempra paint?  Well, here is the love part.  Aren't these absolutely beautiful?

To make these I simply drew a heart on a large piece of construction paper.  This year I cut each heart into 6 pieces and then numbered each piece.  Every child chose a piece to work with and painted their little hearts out (ha ha).  When they were all done, I reassembled the hearts and then laminated them (because everything looks better laminated- am I right?)

These fantastic pieces of art will be auctioned off during our school's Spring Fling.  The proceeds go directly to our wonderful PTA.  I have them hanging in our classroom right now.  The kids are so proud of how they turned out.

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