Kinder Square 1 Art: Rainbow Fish Sketches

My Kinders show great talent in this Rainbow Fish inspired project. And these are just their sketches! I gave them a tracer for the body and they followed a guided drawing (I drew and they copied me via Microsoft Paint and a document camera) for the rest. Each is a little different and very well done. 

Kinder Pinch Pots: Glazed and Fired

Here is my first ever firing of kindergarten pinch pots with my new kiln. They turned out great! I had the kids use Mayco Stroke n' Coat and a white clay from Sax. 

Kinder Self Portrait Paintings

My have my Kinders grown this year! Their art has impressed me time and time again throughout this school year. If they can do this at the kindergarten level, I am excited to see what they produce next year. Being art on a cart, painting is always a challenge for me. This group of Kinders were so helpful and followed directions so well. Painting with them was so easy!

Carolyn Braden's Kinders Fish Bowl Still Life: Pinterest Inspirations

Here are some of my Kinders Fish Bowl Still Life art. I was inspired by a project I saw on Pinterest. It was from artsonia.com. Like I always try to do with my projects, I took it even further. We studied overlapping, collage, pattern, still life, narrative art (they are writing a story to go with their projects), line, shape, color groups, mosaics and so much more. We made a connection to Romare Bearden's mosaics and to Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat. I loved how they turned out. This was first done in crayon and then we painted over it with watercolor paint. (Resist).

Kinders: Fish Bowl Mixed Media

Thank you to one of my Kinders for reminding me to take pictures for my blog! I've been so busy teaching students and forgot to take photos to showcase what they are working on. Here is step one of a mixed media project I'm doing with my Kinders. We drew it and are now working on coloring with warm, cool and neutral colors. Next, we will paint over the crayon to create a resist painting. Students will then create a mosaic on the table. At the end of the project, they will write a story about their art. In their story, they will pretend they are the fish and will tell what they would do if they could get out of the bowl. They will share their stories and art with the class.

Carolyn Braden's Kinders: Pretty Impressive Line Art!

Today I started my Kinders out with line art. I named the lines Carrie Curvy, Dottie Diagonal, Zion Zig Zag, Harriet Horizontal and Victor Vertical. I tell the students poems I made up about each line and they repeat after me. We draw Harriet first, then Dottie, Carrie, Zion and Victor, in that order. I do a guided drawing for this, using Microsoft Paint projected on a screen. It's my "magic paper". When they finish the drawing they always know what they drew: a pool with a fence and slide. One said today it looked like a water park.
Then they practiced their coloring skills.
I love doing guided drawings. Their art always turns out great! I always allow for the students to put their own twists on their drawings to make it their own. It shows students that drawings are just lines and shapes put together in different ways.

Kindergarten: Japanese Carp Windsocks

After studying about Japanese culture and Children's Day (May 5th, a day dedicated to children in Japan), we created carp windsocks. We used bleeding tissue paper to "paint" texture onto the fish body. We studied warm and cool colors. They loved seeing their 2-D fish turn into a 3-D windsock.

Kindergarten Shape Mosaics

Almost finished! We are learning about shades, tints, shapes and more!















Carolyn J. Braden
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What Mrs. Braden's Stars Are Working On Now!

My fourth, third, second, and first graders are working on their drawing skills in their current project.  The are "designing" a cover for Louisville Magazine.  The theme is Churchill Downs, and the Kentucky Derby Race.  They are the designers  and they must think of how they would represent Churchill Downs in great way for the cover.  This is a contest for The Derby Museum that I participate in every year. I will be selecting several of the students works and submitting them for the contest.  Even if we don't have winning artwork from our school, the student work I selected will still be put on display in the Kentucky Derby Museum for visitors from all over the world to see!

Kindergarten is about to explore Mosaics.  They will learn the skills of outlining, gluing, and knowing patterns with this project.  

I am about to submit students works for PTA Reflections and for the River Sweep contest.  We have some great art to represent Byck!!!!!

We started our Discover classes on Friday.  My student teacher, Lauren Williams, and I crafted an African Quilt design project.  Since the theme of my Discover class is "Think Big!", they will create a large scale paper "quilt" using African Quilt patterns and colors as their inspiration.   Ms. Williams has control over my Discover class, while I will remain her assistant.  Ms. Williams has taught my kindergarten this week and will continue to take over my classes one at a time as she feels more and more comfortable.