Jasper Johns & 1st Grade

Even my little ones had an Art History project! This one came from pinterest per usual, not sure if it was this pin exactly but something very similar. This was a great follow up to our many warm and cool color lessons and concepts because they had to paint the squares the opposite of what they wrote in for colors. If I did Jasper Johns again I would try to do something with his American Flag pieces, I think it would be more memorable for students. The biggest difference in teaching Art History with Kindergarten and 1st, is I try to skip the PowerPoint and just show them a digital poster I put together of the artist and their works with a few facts (this actually gets displayed with the project).

Day 1: Intro Jasper Johns with an artist poster. One of the artworks in the poster is his blocked out alphabet and number works like this one and we talk about using that as our inspiration source.

Alphabet, Jasper Johns

Next step, folding the paper. I do like to use the phrases "hamburger" and "hot dog" because it is something they remember, but I make sure to follow up those words with the words horizontal and vertical. We fold it into eight sections and then write with our finger first what is going to go in each box. I use my visualizer to do an example of someone in the class. I stuck with names and birthdays to keep it simple. We practiced together understanding that if we wrote one in cool what do we paint it in and vice versa. After that, they got to work. Wrote in pencil, traced in oil pastels, and painted with watercolor.

Day 2: Finished up painting and did a little extension project for early finishers. The extension was on a smaller piece of paper and using all different materials to essentially re-create their painting. Highlighters were the favorite choice!

It was really fun displaying the projects as a block, it made them a lot more exciting visually!

McDill Elementary...

Kennedy Elementary...

Jefferson Elementary... 

Hands and More Hands!

Two of my absolute favorite things to teach are Warm/Cool Colors and RAINBOWS! Rainbow Order. Both of these concepts are fundamental and come up a lot in the aesthetic world and in future projects throughout K-12 Art Education.

1st Grade

Kindergarten

For Kindergarten we did Rainbow Order. My absolute favorite way to introduce this is with this video!

It will get stuck in your head for WEEKS! The only negative with it is that I don't include pink when I teach rainbow order but the kids seem okay with it. They still ask me (as we are on our 2nd project after this one) to play it!

For 1st grade we continue talking about Warm and Cool Colors which we touched on a little bit with our blob monsters. I tried a new activity with this concept and it worked great. I gave each student in the class a different color square of paper as they walked in and had them go to the side of the room they thought they belonged (either warm side or cool side). I saw them helping each other and working together to figure it out. Then before I laid out the paper we were using for the project I acted like I didn't know what pile they belonged in and had them tell me if it was warm or cool. (My Superintendent observed this lesson but unfortunately he didn't come in till after the activity was finished which really bummed me out because it went so well!)

With both K & 1 we talked about types of lines too and where we see them in the world around us or where we use them in art. This was to create the background for their hands. 1st grade had to use the opposite color set of what they chose for their hands. So, if warm hands, cool lines, vice versa. Kindergarteners had to do lines in rainbow order since I didn't have them glue their hands in rainbow order (even though some of my favorite examples did!).

Lastly, this was a great project for developing fine motor skills. It was a lot of tracing and cutting for little ones and there was a lot of help but they worked hard and all seemed to love the final product!

I thought there was a pin on pinterest once upon a time that inspired this project but I can't seem to find it!

***UPDATE!***
Found the pinterest post!

Jefferson Elementary...

Kennedy Elementary...

One Kindergarten class had some extra time so we colored these awesome giant rainbows on the floor together!

McDill Elementary...

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...

Kennedy Elementary School...

Jefferson Elementary, with Shape Monsters...

 McDill Elementary, with Shape Monsters...

Student told me this was a zombie monster, that is why he doesn't have pupils....

Scariest one at all 3 schools!