Bold and Beautiful Buildings Have Arrived!

Come in and visit Kindergarten City in the main hall at MMS!

Kindergarten City!

Today the children completed their Buildings Project by adding color to the work they created last week. They were given a wide selection of oil pastels and invited to color and finish their buildings however they wanted.

Hard at work!

Please scroll through the pictures below. The kids created a ton of amazing work!

You may notice that as you look through that your child has a certain, very particular and personal style of working. Or you may notice that they were interested in exploring a certain aspect of the project that they found interesting.

Although we did not focus on any particular elements, certain children had a natural curiosity about symmetry (or asymmetry!), pattern, filling the page, creating shapes and telling stories. Some children were inspired by what they saw their classmates creating. Others worked more individually.

After each piece was finished the kids had a chance to tell me something that was special about their building. These quotes from the kids are also added to the work given the viewer a little peek into the "mind of the artist"! (I apologize! Some quotes are hard to read in the photos).

It is really incredible to watch their natural creativity and curiosity emerge in a project like this. Please scroll through and enjoy the work your amazing artist has created!

Sameer

Deven

Maya

Andrew and Sameer

Lucy

John

Luke

Deven

John

John

Maya

Benjamin

Deven

Luke

Benjamin

Maya

Lucy

Lucy

Andrew

Sameer

Andrew

Lucy

John

Benjamin

Andrew

John

Andrew

Benjamin

You are all invited to stop in MMS and see Kindergarten City in person! A large display is hanging in the main hall as well as a little "Kindergarten Suburb" outside of Bearville and Poohville too.

Building Buildings! Part One

Happy New Year!

Welcome back to MMS kindergarten art part two!

We began 2016 with a project exploring buildings. After a quick slideshow where we viewed and discussed a few different types of buildings (ancient, modern, familiar (our homes), unusual, tall, squat, symmetrical and not) the children were given free reign to create their own buildings.

 

Using a square of cardboard  and an empty roll of toliet paper as a stamps, the children used washable white paint to "stamp" their buildings onto large pieces of black construction paper. The results were amazing! Here are just a few examples of the many pieces that were made today.

The children, without any prompting made bubble houses, skyscrapers, ancient buildings (the Colosseum!), igloos, bunny houses and so many other amazing creations. Look out for windows, stairs, slides, lolly-pop fences... You name it, they added it!

Color will be added to these buildings next week using oil pastels. The children will also be given a chance to describe what is special about their buildings and these descriptions will be added to the display as well. (A little peek into the mind of the artist!)

Finally we will hang the "kindergarten city" in the front hall of MMS. I will post pictures of the final class work but feel free to stop in next week and see it for yourself!

Snowflake Symmetry

Today the kindergartners created a snow storm of symmetry!

After a quick introduction to the concept of symmetry (shapes that are the same on both sides) , the kindergartners jumped right in to creating their own snowflakes. These snowflakes will be hung up in garlands for the holiday show!

First the kids began by making simple snowflake drawings using white oil pastels on blue squares of paper.

They were encouraged to think about making their snowflakes symmetrical and to add special little details (circles, lines and triangles) to make their snowflakes more interesting and complex.

Symmetrical snowflakes on blue paper

When the kids felt warmed up and confident we got out the watercolors. The kids drew their snowflakes with white oil pastel on white paper (a huge challenge since you can't see what you have drawn!) and then gently painted over their snowflakes with watercolors. Both snowflake design and paint color were entirely up to the artist.

Snowflakes with oil pastel and watercolor

Gorgeous! I will be connecting each child's set of snowflakes into a hanging garland and they will be on display during the MMS holiday show(s)!

NOTE FOR PARENTS: Your children will have 3 pieces of work on display at the MMS Holiday Show: a watercolor winter scene, a pastel fox and a snowflake garland. After the show please take your child's art work home! They make beautiful additions to any holiday decorations.

The Sweetest Foxes in the World!

Ready for a sneak peek of the Kindergarten Art Projects that will be on display during the MMS Holiday Show?

 Scroll down and see the beautiful foxes the kindergarten class made today!

We began the day with a quick warm up drawing in sketchbooks. The drawing emphasized breaking the image of the fox up into shapes that are familiar and easy to draw. 

With the warm-up complete the kids began work on their final pieces.

On large pieces of black construction paper that kids used light colored pencils to draw the initial shapes that make the fox (upside down triangle for a head, circles and half circles for eyes, oval for belly etc.)

Then the kids traced the colored pencil lines with black oil pastel so that the edges would really "pop" when the color was added. 

Now for color! Black for the nose and eyes!

White for the belly, tip of the tail and circles around the eyes.

What color will your fox be today? Artist's choices included: pink, orange and red.

Finally the kids built the world around their foxes, blue skies and green grass! 

See the final pieces below -- and view them in person at the MMS Holiday show! 

Please let me know what you think! Comments are most welcome!