kindergarten 1st day of art class lesson

Kindergarten 1st day of art class lesson

I found a great lesson for the 1st day of art class from the Double Loaded paintbrush blog. 

http://doubleloadedpaintbrush.blogspot.com/

When the children arrived for their first day of art class I had them sit on the floor. I filled a backpack  with art supplies for the children to pull out of the bag. Each time a student pulled out an item we discussed what it was and how to use it. I made sure to have something for each student to pull out of the bag. In the front pocket I had a heart with the words "respect" a "smiley face" and a trapezoid with the word "try" written on it. We discussed how to respect the teachers and the art supplies, to always "try" in art and to enjoy art (smiley face). 

I then had the students make art! I printed on 12" x 18" multi media paper a frame and the rules we discussed. 

Students were then instructed to draw a picture of me. This gave me a quick assessment of how students were developmentally in their drawing skills. 

Again, thanks for the idea "Double Loaded Paintbrush". 

1st day of art class for 1st graders

1st day of art class for 1st graders lesson

I found this great lesson plan on http://dripdripsplattersplash.blogspot.com/. It is the perfect lesson for the 1st day of art class. My first graders are already familiar with the art room so I do a brief review of the classroom and rules and then read the book "The Dot" by Peter H. Reynolds. 

We discuss the terms "negative" and "positive" in art and then I demonstrate (actually review) how to paint with watercolors. Students are instructed to use only the primary and secondary colors (no black or brown). Students also can only paint the positive or negative space of their paintings.
Great 1st day project with students.

Classroom management for the art room

One of the incentives I give my students in art class is the opportunity to earn a star for their classroom. Students have to have all green on the "Be Art Smart" chart. I made magnets with little faces on them. Green is good (happy face), yellow is a try harder (straight face) and red is an uh'oh (sad face).  When the class earns ten stars then the class earns a free day. I found this system here. http://www.mpmschoolsupplies.com/ideas/2713/behavior-management-strategies-visible-goals-daily-evaluations/ . I changed it a little from their system.

I like free days as well because those students who haven't finished other art work have to do it during their free day.

I give the students a variety of things to work with on their free day such as play dough, stencils, learn how to draw cartoon books, art building toys, art matching games, a box of scrapes so they can make whatever they want etc.

When I have a student who is very difficult I send home a letter. You can see it here. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3jcyrMhp2GddUlJMDdyTUFRb2s/view?usp=sharing

If I don't get the letter back from the student then I e-mail or call the parent.  Their classroom teacher will appreciate this as well, because they probably have similar problems with the child in their own classroom. 

I also have a student desk beside my desk. I have a couple of students who have trouble concentrating at their table so they sit here to help eliminate classroom distractions. I tell them it isn't a punishment, it just helps them to concentrate better away from everyone. After I have introduced the lesson, usually they can go back to their original seat and get to work. 

kindergarten art lesson Andy Warhol

Kindergarten art lesson Andy Warhol

                                  In this demonstration video the children are actually using paint sticks. I made the video during COVID and I was teaching on a cart. The kindergarten classrooms don't have sinks so this was a great alternative. 

This is a popular lesson that has been repeated several times on the internet. I'm not sure where the original idea came from. 

I had the children watch the video "Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists, Andy Warhol". 

I also have several books for children on Andy Warhol. 

. The print below is from the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. This is the print for our inspiration

http://www.warhol.org/uploadedImages/Warhol_Site/Warhol/Content/Warhol_Artwork/1998.1.24.jpg

After the video I had the children paint green grass on a 12" x 9" piece of black construction paper. Some students used paint brushes and others wanted to use q-tips. 

The following art class I provided various colors of 4" x 6" pieces of construction paper. They were allowed to pick four pieces of any color. 

The children folded the papers in half and made flowers. 

After they assembled their flowers

on their grass they took q-tips and painted little black dots for the middle of the flowers (pistil and stamen). 

1st grade Eric Carle butterflies

1st Grade Eric Carle Butterflies

1st graders reviewed the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. At our district, the kindergartners do a unit on butterflies so this is  a review of the story. We focused on the colors he used and how he created the collages. I found a great you tube video. It's called 40 Years of the Very Hungry Caterpillar by Beyond Books. It's only five minutes long and it is a perfect introduction to the lesson. 

I provided two pieces of multi media 9" x 12" pieces of paper for each student. They were told to put their  names on their papers before they were allowed to get started. 

I  then allowed the children to use any of the materials I set out to create their painted papers. 

They were told to do a paper with warm colors and then the other paper with cool colors. 

On the next day of class students folded their paper in half to make butterfly wings. They were to do this on both papers. I checked each one before they could cut (someone always draws it on the opened part of the paper fold!). All the wings turned out differently.

Students then colored their background papers and assembled their butterflies. They used a black oil pastel to make the bodies. My first graders love bingo daubers so I put them out again if they wanted to put more dots on their butterflies. Some students used them to make bugs and flowers. They could also use tissue paper to make any additional flowers or details on their butterflies. 

The kids loved this project. All the butterflies turned out so differently. 

kindergarten butterflies

Kindergarten butterfly art lesson 

At my district, the kindergartners do a big unit on butterflies in the spring. They watch caterpillars turn into butterflies and read many stories about them.
To begin the lesson, I showed the students many photos of real butterflies. We discussed the term "symmetry" and drew imaginary lines down the middle of their bodies to show symmetry. We then took a 9" x 12" piece of multi media paper and folded it like a card. We then opened  the cards  and traced the middle line with our fingers so we could remember that is where we would  be drawing half of a butterfly. Believe me, you have to do this part. Many children will not start the body on this line if you don't make them do this!

As I demonstrated, I drew a black line down the middle of my paper so they could see my line ( and reminding them not to draw a black line like mine). I then showed them how to draw half of a body, fold it over and press. Students needed to paint dark so  it would print out on the other side of their paper. After the body, I demonstrated how  to draw wings,  press, and then finally they put some lines or dots on the wings. They were told to not color in the butterfly because on the next art class they would be adding color. 

Since I have the kindergartners for 50 minutes, I showed a couple of videos from you tube. 

One is The butterfly Life Cycle (metamorphosis) Song by Mr. R's for teaching  and the other is Caterpillar to Butterfly by QuadSquad. This one shows real footage of the caterpillar changing into the chrysalis to a butterfly.
For the next art class we reviewed the term "symmetry" in art and reviewed symmetry in our butterfly photos.
I demonstrated how to color one shape on a butterfly and then students pointed to where I would have to color the next spot to create symmetry on my butterfly. I  showed them several examples before they could begin.

I taught this lesson in May so my kindergartners are almost 1st graders. I would not do this project at the beginning of the year with this level. Most of the students were done in a half hour so they were allowed to read the art books in our art library till class was over.

I found this idea from Cassie Stephens' blog.  http://cassiestephens.blogspot.com. I just changed it a bit to meet the needs of my kindergartners. Her lesson was for 2nd graders.