Van Gogh Sunflowers

Kindergarteners looked at images of Van Gogh's Sunflowers.  We discussed what shapes and colors we saw.  We started by cutting out symmetrcial vases- students folded their papers in half and were instructed to draw a number 3 starting at the fold.  They cut them out and decorated them with oil pastel creating different patterns and designs.  The next class we glued brown strips to the bottom of our papers and our vases on top of that- we talked about overlapping our vase on the brown paper instead of having it sit right on top of it.  Students then traced and cut out 3 circles using whatever combination of yellow and orange they chose.  they drew dark circles in the center and cut fringes around the edges to simulate petals.  They were glued at different heights about the vase.  The next week THey painted green stems and leaves connecting the flowers to the vases.  This lesson took about 2 and a half classes- my K classes are only 30 min.  If I had longer I could have finished this in 2 classes.

Cardinals

This is one of my new favorite lessons!  I found this idea on another blog and tried it out with Kindergarten this past winter.  We looked at different images of cardinals and discussed what shapes we saw.  Students began by painting a brown branch across their paper.  they then painted a circle above the branch with a triangle on top and a trapezoid (or triangle with its point cut off) below the branch.  They used white paint to add snow on top of the branch and in the sky.  The next week we added faces by cutting out and gluing on a small orange triangle beak.  They drew two dots for eyes, one on each side of the triangle.  I'll try to find a closeup. These came out really beautiful!

Warm and Cool Colored Umbrellas

April showers bring May flowers!  Kindergarteners painted umbrellas with warm colors and raind drops with cool colors.  They traced the shape of the umbrellas from patterns, cut them out and glued everything together.  They were encouraged to create unique designs and patterns.

Arts Night

I work at two elementary schools and this month they each had their Arts Night.  It is a lot of work but the results are really worth it.  This year It was artist's choice but in the future I would like to choose one project per class.  I think part of the key to a successful show is large noticeable labels (class, student name).

Watering the Garden

Another fun spring lesson from last year, Kindergarteners created gardens after reading Lois Ehlert's "Planting a Rainbow". THey traced, decorated and cut out a watering can. on a 12x18 sheet of paper students drew a garden with various flowers and other details. They glued their watering can onto an upper corner and added blue yarn or tissue paper from the spout.

Jar of Bugs

This is a great spring lesson. Kindergarteners begin by tracing a jar shape. They then draw details- lid, branch, leaves, flowers and fingerpaint various colored dots throughout their jar. When the paint is dry, students can use sharpie to add details to their bugs such as legs, faces, antennae, etc.

Secondary Pumpkins

This lesson was found at www.artsonia.com, a great website of art lessons for all different ages. Kindergarteners learned about primary and secondary colors. We began by reading "Mouse Paint" and discussed the difference between primary and secondary colors. They practiced mixing secondary colors by adding a little of one primary color into a small cup of another primary color. They mixed orange and painted a 9x12 paper with it. Then they mixed purple and green and painted half a sheet of paper with each color. When dry, they drew circles on the orange paper which they cut out and glued onto the other paper with the green on bottom and purple on top. Students were instructed to overlap their pumpkins and were given thin strips of green paper to cut and glue on as stems.