Fall Trees in Warms and Cool Colors

We began this rainy Tuesday morning talking about warm and cool colors and how we could use them to create fall trees.

The kids brainstormed together which colors were warm/hot and which were cool/cold. We used this information to organize the colors we used to draw our trees.

Beginning on a black piece of construction paper, the kids used brown oil pastels (a warm color) to draw and color the trunks and limbs of their trees. They followed along with my example, but did so loosely. As a tree grows to its own shape in nature, we allowed our trees to grow on the page in the way that felt right to each of us.

Then they colored the ground and sky in various cool greens and blues of their choosing.

Maybe you noticed that our trees have no leaves. After finishing these basic tree drawings, the kids drew leaves on white watercolor paper. They used warm colors (reds, oranges and yellows) to draw the leaves and then painted them with watercolors! Next week we will cut the leaves out and glue them to the trees! We will also create personalized frames for last weeks lion project and hang them in our MMS "gallery"!

Looking Like Lions

Today we did a multi-step, multi-media project drawing and painting lions faces!

We began with a quick warm up worksheet. This worksheet featured all the simple shapes that we would need to combine to create our lions: circles, ovals, upside-down triangles, and the shape of "w". After repeating the shapes on the worksheet we moved on to our lion drawing.

The kids followed along step by step as I demonstrated how to create a lion face from simple shapes. After that the kids traced their lions with permanent marker. (Side note: they were all well aware that using permanent marker required extra caution and care. They were amazingly responsible and careful with them. No mishaps! Nice work, kids!)

After that, a quick lesson in the basics of painting with watercolor including using lots of water and gentle mixing to "wake the paints up", always rinsing between colors and using the top of the paint set for any color mixing. Here are a few process pictures.

After the follow along drawing lesson, I felt it was important to give the kids artistic freedom during the painting section of the project. We discussed that our lions need not be realistic. the kids were free to paint them in any colors they chose. I did encourage them to fill the page with color, but even this was left up to the individual artist in the end. Beautiful work today. Hope you enjoy it.

See you next week!

Welcome to MMS Kindergarten Art Class 2018-9!

Hello! And welcome to the first kindergarten art class!

Today we had fun with our first project (yay!) and reviewed rules and expectations for art class.

Here is what we discussed for art class rules:
1) Have fun!
2) Listen and follow instruction
3) Respect your classmates and the art materials
4) Be kind (you may talk quietly while you work!)

Then we jumped right in to a fun lesson on line. Using strips of construction paper and glue, the kids explored vertical and horizontal line. Then they had fun adding their own personal touches with white paint. As you will see below, given pretty limited materials the pieces came out quite differently. This is wonderful and interesting! Some children were interested in exploring patterns with the color strips. Others were inspired to fill the page with color. Some created symmetrical pieces and some did not. Many were inspired simply by the look and feel of the paint. There were as many approaches to the work as there are children in the class!

We talked about how in art there is no "right" or "wrong". When you are the artist, you get to make the decisions!

I also introduced the kids to the idea of their sketchbooks. Today they designed their covers and did a few free drawings to break them in. The sketchbooks will be used throughout the year as a space for explorations and drawing lessons.

Please remember! If you have not yet sent in a smock for your child, please do so as soon as possible. Any adult size t-shirt that can fit over your child's everyday clothes is perfect. The kids love to get messy with materials -- but there is no reason that they need to bring the mess back to thier classrooms or home!