The Artsy Fartsy Art Room: Monsters! (Part 1)

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Monsters! (Part 1)

Themes are a big part of the way I structure my curriculum. Not only does it keep me a little more sane, but I think it is a great way to show unity at the school. It also allows for a lot more interesting and elaborate displays because you can connect the displays or inter-mix the grades when hanging work.

This month I went with monsters! I do not know what it is about monsters that brings out creativity in students, their imaginations just seem to run wild! I ended up having a Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade monster project, but the 2nd grade is a bit more elaborate and is actually two projects. So, you will see more of that one later. Both of the projects here, Kindergarten and 1st, ended up being very successful and allowed me to include multiple concepts.

Kindergarten just finished up shapes in the regular classroom so it was a perfect time to integrate them into their art and it is never too early to talk about patterns either! I made the visual below to have them try to guess which was not a pattern and to talk about why the others were. My idea for the project came from this pinterest post and this one.

Kennedy Elementary School...

Just Shape Monster Display

Jefferson Elementary....

HOW CUTE IS THIS ONE!?

McDill Elementary....

This Kindergartener below totally shocked me by telling me he was going to use "the primary colors" in his pattern when I haven't even mentioned what those are yet! SO IMPRESSED!

For 1st grade I really wanted to teach the concept that with the same facial features a huge variety of expressions can be made just with small changes. The biggest success with this lesson came with the demonstration I did with my example. I had one finished example and one with all the parts laminated but not connected so I could show what moving and changing the directions of them did. I got a ton of giggles with this and students were really engaged. The favorite was changing the eyebrows and making a really silly monster. Seeing which personalities of students, made what personalities with the monsters was the biggest treat for me :)

I also tried to integrate Warm and Cool Colors for the first time. While it was a good introduction, I don't think the concept stuck with many students because it was so quick. Our next project will be in large part about the Warm/Cool concept so a few will have a one up that it did stick with...