Kindergarten Heart Fish

I am on a quest to revive this old blog and share some of the things I am doing in my classroom... so let's get right to it!

Within this post you will find the videos that I use for demonstration - feel free to use! I will never place ads in the videos that I create. You will probably also notice that there is no sound - I like to teach "live" with my videos so I mute them when editing. 

This past week my kinder's enjoyed making these cute little fish collages made of hearts. We focused on skill-building and following directions, so the results are all very similar, but we learned a lot and I feel that projects like these are great for practice and confidence-building! Of course there is a lot to say about symmetry, but I also appreciate the fine motor practice this lesson offers with all the tracing, cutting, and gluing it involves.

I am actually in the middle of a unit with my kinders where we are learning how to spell the color words - this week was R-E-D, red! I use the following song as part of my anticipatory set (not my video - does contain ads):

We then begin creating the fish body and tail step-by-step together:

I start by handing them a 9"x6" red piece of construction paper that I have pre-folded (I just fold a big stack at once to get them going) as well as the 1/2 heart stencils. I am very clear that they are not to begin tracing until I have checked their stencils to make sure they are on the FOLD side of the paper (the crease). Once I give them a "thumb's up," they can trace the OUTSIDE of the 1/2 heart (not the red line, I tell them).

They then return the stencils to me (as I double-check their tracing) and we go over the steps for cutting (many will want to only cut 1/2 the paper).

Once they finish cutting, they dispose of their scraps and join me at the carpet area for a story. My Heart Is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall is the perfect accompaniment to this lesson (you can probably also find read-alouds on YouTube)! After the story and a quick review of the R-E-D song, we go over the remaining directions:

The fish body and tail are glued to a 9"x12" piece of construction paper (I chose purple). In order for it to really have that fish shape, we talk about how the points on the hearts have to face the same direction. We also talk about how it needs to be glued lower on the paper so that there is room for the bubbles. The lips are made from a heart traced onto a 3"x3" pink piece of construction paper and this heart needs to point the opposite direction.

Finally, using the same little heart stencil, they trace 3 heart bubbles from a 4.5"x6" teal/blue piece of paper, including a white crayon/pastel "shine" and of course - the most fun part - a giant googly eye. 

Hope you and your students enjoy this sweet little lesson as much as we did!

If you would like the stencils I used, you can find a pdf here. Pro tip: print onto card stock! It saves you a lot of tracing - but you will need to add the red line and "FOLD" if you wish to have that on there.

Kindergarten Gingerbread Man

This is one of my favorite lessons of the season, mostly because of the joy the kids get out of the story. The way it worked out was kind of a flook - I couldn't find the actual book, so I made a Power Point of the story using clip art as pictures. This ended up working out even better than the book, because I added a few extra "custom" parts. Here's how I tell the story (each line is a new slide):

The Gingerbread Man: Retold by (You)

Once upon a time there was a little old lady and a little old man who lived in a little old cottage.

The little old woman decided to make a gingerbread man for her little old husband for Christmas.

She mixed the ingredients.

She rolled out the dough.

She cut out a gingerbread man shape.

Then she put it in the oven.

The kitchen smelled SO good as the cookie baked. The little old man was very excited. "Is it done yet?" he kept asking.

Finally, he couldn't wait any longer. He peeked into the oven...

And out jumped the gingerbread man! He ran right out the door! "Stop! We want to eat you!" they yelled.

But the gingerbread man kept on running. He shouted, "Run, run, just as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man."

**At this point, I have the students read the "You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man" part whenever it comes up.**

On the path he saw a dog, who happened to be very hungry. "Stop, I want to eat you!" shouted the dog.

But the gingerbread man kept on running. He shouted, "Run, run, just as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man."

He ran through (your school's town). "Stop! We want to eat you!" shouted the townspeople.

**I used a photo of our town I found on our chamber of commerce's website... someday I'd like to take my own.**

But the gingerbread man kept on running. He shouted, "Run, run, just as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man."

He ran through (your school). "Stop!" yelled the students. "Stop!" yelled the teachers. "Stop!" yelled (your principal).

**The kids LOVE this slide. "That's OUR school!" they yell.**

But the gingerbread man kept on running. He shouted, "Run, run, just as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man."

He came to a forest where he saw many animals. "Stop!" yelled the raccoons. "Stop!" yelled the deer. "Stop!" yelled the squirrels.

But the gingerbread man kept on running. He shouted, "Run, run, just as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man."

Soon the gingerbread man came to a wide river. "Oh, no! What am I going to do?!" cried the gingerbread man.

A sly fox came along. "I will take you across the river," he offered. "But you will eat me!" said the gingerbread man. "No I won't. I've already had lunch. Grab onto my tail," the fox insisted. And the gingerbread man did.

But the river was too deep. "Oh, no! My body is getting wet!" cried the gingerbread man.

"Well, climb onto my back and you will be safe," said the fox. And the gingerbread man did.

But the river was still too deep. "Oh, no! My feet are getting wet!" cried the gingerbread man.

"Well, climb onto my head and you will be safe," said the fox. And the gingerbread man did.

But the river was still too deep. "Oh, no! My toes are getting wet!" cried the gingerbread man.

"Well, climb onto my nose and you will be safe," said the fox. And the gingerbread man did.

Suddenly, the fox snapped his head back and gobbled the gingerbread man right up!

The End

I would be happy to e-mail you the Power Point with clip art if you contact me. It's not exactly pretty - but it does the trick. I have dreams of illustrating it myself (or at least making a gingerbread man that doesn't always have a white box around him), but we all know how much free time art teachers have. : )

After the story, we complete a crayon-resist gingerbread man - all wrapped up in a lovely 35-minute session.

Kindergarten Rainbows and Tempera Fun

Well, today was the first day of snow for the winter, so I decided to post about bright colorful rainbows to lighten up this gray, gloomy day.

I use this lesson to not only introduce my kinders to the rainbow order of colors, but it is also my first lesson with tempera. I start out by teaching them my rainbow song (to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"):

Red, orange, yellow, green and blue
Don't forget there's purple, too
All the colors that we know
Live up in a big rainbow
Red, orange, yellow, green and blue
Don't forget there's purple too


I have a big rainbow poster that I point to the colors on while singing, and I also add a few motions. We shake our finger with "Don't forget there's purple too," hold our arms and hands out for "All the colors that we know", and form a rainbow with our arms over our heads for "Live up in a big rainbow." It really sticks in their minds - they always remember it after this lesson.

Then it's demonstration time with the tempera. Here are my procedures:

-I keep the paint in solo cups so I can put the tops back on them and save them for later. It wastes very little paint, it's easy to distribute, and it's a small enough amount that if the color gets too contaminated, I'm not super upset about throwing it away and starting fresh.


-If I'm not going to paint again for a while, I wrap the trays in plastic bags, because the solo cups are not completely air tight when paint gets on the rim (which it will).
-I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE brushes with the shorter handles. The long handles are just too much. School Specialty sells them.
-2-4 students share a paint tray and a water dish, depending on how the tables are set up, which makes set up/clean up faster. I just buy clear deli containers from Gordon Food Service for water dishes, and I'm sure they could be found at Sam's club.
-I also give students a piece of paper towel. To make it easier to pass out, I cut down the side of it with a box cutter.

Since I use the solo cups, it's important that the colors don't contaminate each other. Therefore, I tell them to "Swish, swish, swish - Wipe, wipe, wipe, - Dry, Dry Dry - then Dip the Tip" We say this over and over as we paint so they "Swish" the brush in the water, "Wipe" it on the side (not tap, because then the water splatters everywhere), "Dry" on the paper towel so the colored water doesn't get in the paint, and then they "Dip the Tip" of the brush in the paint.

With the rainbow project, they have to switch colors 6 times, so it's good practice. I pre-draw the top of the rainbow with a pencil to give them a starting point, and when they are finished, I glue the song in a cloud so they can sing it at home!

One of my fav's.

"C" is for Chameleon

These cute lizards are what we make during the letter "C" week for kindergarten.

We start out by reading "A Color of His Own" by Leo Lionni. The story is about (warning: spoiler) a chameleon who wants a color of his own like the other animals, so he decides he will stand on a leaf forever so he will be green. But, as we all know, leaves change color, so that didn't work out too well. Eventually another chameleon comes along and says that even though they will always change color wherever they go, if they always stay together, they will always be alike. I find that the children have great empathy for the chameleon in the story and really understand the message of friendship (I usually get a rousing "awwwww!" at the end). The book itself is also a great review of colors.

I have stencils for them to use, but the different colors/designs create a lot of variety in the finished product! We also talk about how pressing hard with crayon makes a fun effect when painted over with watercolor.

Clay Texture Hearts

Our kindergarten classes learn a new letter each week, and I try to follow along and do a project that incorporates that letter. Sometimes the order really works in my favor... when we created the clay hearts, the letter was "T" for "texture," and when we glazed them a couple weeks later, it was "H" for "heart.

This project is simple, and the results are beautiful. It can be completed with 24 kids, no aides, in 35 minutes. The only major prep is to portion the clay into balls so it is quickly distributed.

First, the clay balls are pounded down into a flat disc - this is noisy, but the kids love it and it saves me from pre-rolling slabs. We talk about what is too thick and too thin - and worse case, they are too thin and have to be rolled again. Then they trace a heart stencil with a wooden stick. Once traced, they use a stretched-out paper clip to cut them out (just as good as real clay tools). Then comes the real fun - I have "texture trays" on the tables with various materials like plastic forks, straws, etc for students to make textures with on their heart. I tell them it's best not to poke through the clay too much. As they finish, I write their name on the back of their heart, poke a hole in the top, and they work on a "T" handwriting/coloring page to finish up the time.

For glazing, I take about 5 students at a time to a glazing "center" as they are working on a different project that they can complete fairly independently. They choose one color to glaze the top with. I really enjoy the Sax True Flow Gloss Glazes available at School Specialty: Art Education - though I just saw some glazes from Roven Ceramics at an Art Ed conference that come in powder form and are nicely priced.

Adorable.

Texture Ornaments

Being December, I'm still on the holiday kick and want to share a simple kindergarten lesson that incorporates one of the most difficult elements of art for little ones to grasp - texture. I have a classroom set of fiskars rubbing plates, but textures around the room or samples of every-day textures would work as well. I give students a circle stencil to trace, then they rub the texture onto the circle with a crayon (I show them how to use the side of a peeled one). I also had pre-cut construction paper bows for the tops to dress them up a bit - they could probably cut and trace the bows themselves. On the bows, I wrote each student's name with a Sharpie as they turned them in. At the time, I worked at a small school where there were only two classes of kindergarten, so I made a tree out of bulletin board paper and hung them up as my classroom tree. It was a cute little display (even with the electric panel in the middle)! Since it was a quick lesson, we had time to read a book together and talk a lot about texture to make sure they grasped the concept (30 min total).

Art Classroom Tip: Elements of Art


Speaking of the elements of art, I love having these posted in my room. I got them from United Art & Education. The thing I love about them is the simple definition included with the word, as well as the visual definition in the way the element is written. Since I have "double art" with my 3rd graders, we get very in-depth discussing the elements. As we review artwork as inspiration for our projects, I simply ask the students to tell me about the artwork using the elements vocabulary. Then I call on students who raise their hands, and they surprise me every time with how critical of an eye they have! At the beginning of the year, we review the elements, but I think allowing the students to tell ME about the artwork allows them to progressively cement the information in their minds.