Welcome to MMS Art Class 2017-2018!

Welcome to the 2017-2018 Art Class at MMS!

Before beginning the fun on our first day of art class, we introduced ourselves and discussed what the guidelines and expectations for behavior are in art.

1. Have Fun!

2. Listen (to teacher instruction AND classmates comments/questions)

3. Respect (for classmates/teacher, art materials and classroom space)

4. Talk and Work Quietly

Our first day began with the kids receiving their personal sketchbooks. This is a really special and exciting element of the kindergarten art program. During some classes, the sketchbooks serve as a place the kids can work to further explore the days lesson.On other days, they can be used as completely free and safe space where the kids can create whatever they like!

Today we began by working on the covers of our sketchbooks, making them unique and personal. The kids were free to design their sketchbooks in any way they chose. It is always interesting and exciting to see where the kids go with an open ended assignment.

 

After finishing the sketchbook covers, we moved on to the stage one of our first project: printing self portraits. It is a challenging assignment to begin with but we break it down into easy steps. First we warmed up our hands and eyes by following along with some practice work sheets. These gave the kids a chance to think about and explore the different shapes and lines we see when drawing a face.  Then we worked on our final practice sheet. There the kids brought all the features together and practiced drawing their whole face.

Then we got out some soft printmaking plates. (They are almost like a very thin sheet of styrofoam.) The kids drew their faces for a final time. Drawing with pencil on the styrofoam sheet, the pencil sinks in. Next class we will be rolling ink onto these sheets and printing them! The lines the kids drew will remain the color of the background paper and everything else will "print" in the color of the ink. It should be fun -- and messy! Please remember to send in a smock or adult t-shirt for your child!

We will be printing multiple times with many different colors just to see what happens. It should be pretty exciting. Plus,the self portraits they create now will hang side by side with the end of the year self portraits! Just imagine that.