Van Gogh Sunflowers- Kindergarten Style

I saw this great short, but sweet post on another art teacher blog called ART PROJECT GIRL (the link is shown below).  I thought it was a great one day project for kindergarten that covered some key art concepts and ideas.

http://artprojectgirl.blogspot.com/2010/04/easy-project-you-can-do-tomorrow.html

Concepts Covered:

• Artist Introduction- Vincent Van Gogh
• How to Talk About Artwork (Class Discussion on the shapes and colors we see)
• How to hold a paintbrush
• How to make thick and thin lines using the same paintbrush
• How to outline using paint
• How to create a flower similar to Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers

Look at these students hard at work!!!!

First we started by making dots.
Then we used our paintbrush to make thick or thin lines.
And lastly we used a small paintbrush to make our black outlines. 

Finished Student Examples to be Posted Soon

Kindergarten Robots

What do we need to make a Robot?

For this project the students are continuing to improve upon their shape and size recognition.

The students were directed to draw a robot using a variety of shapes.  We used squares/rectangles for the head, body, and arms.  The students could use triangles of the hands and buttons.  They were directed to use circles for the eyes, buttons, and wheels/feet.

The students did a great job at recognizing their different shapes and organizing them to create a robot.  Below are some adorable student examples of their robots.

Small Medium & Large Shapes

Shapes and Shape Bugs

After being introduced to the Art Room rules and procedures, the first two projects I like to do are based around basic shapes and sizes.  With these projects I am introducing the Kindergarteners to basic concepts that we will not only be using and re-visting throughout this school year, as the students continue to venture down their artistic paths.

The first part of the project involved a group game where the students help to sort out a variety of shapes into the correct size categories.

Our Sorting Game-The students were able to walk up to the
SMART Board and drag the different shapes into the correct categories.

Part 2 of our Small, Medium, and Large project series involved the students picking from a pile of shapes on their tables.  These piles were made up of small, medium, and large triangles, squares, and rectangles.  The students had to select a small, medium, and large shape from the pile and then glue those 3 shapes down in order of smallest to largest.

The final stage of our Small, Medium, and Large lesson had students create a Shape Bug using small, medium, and large shapes.  We viewed a PowerPoint, that showed the students how our Shape Bug was created. The students drew along with the slides as our Shape Bug started out as a medium circle and grew to 4 medium circles with small shapes attached to it.

Here are some examples of the great Shape Bugs the students created.

Silly Face Pumpkins

In kindergarten we were working on creating silly face pumpkins that show different emotions. By the end of the assignment the students will have learned how to hold a paintbrush, paint in one direction, how to place their artwork on a drying rack, how to properly hold a pair of scissors, how to cut along a line, and how to glue down their artwork using dots of glue.

We began by reading the book Today I Feel Silly and other moods that make my day by Jamie Lee Curtis.

The students then painted 2 pieces of paper, one green and one orange.  Then once it was dry the students were to draw triangles on the green paper to make grass.  On the orange paper the students were to draw a large circle to make a pumpkin.  They then began to cut their shapes out to create their Silly Face Pumpkins.

Their finished work.  The students worked on properly cutting along a line as well as using a small amount of glue to attach their pieces to a background page.