Kinders: The Dot, Ish and Sky Color Projects

These are my Kinders very first drawings of the year. We read The Dot by Peter Reynolds and made shape drawings. The following week we made line drawings after reading Ish. This week we read Reynolds book Sky Color and mixed primary colors to make secondary colors. They now understand shape, line and color and will be ready for their first big art project, Pattern Owls. 

Carolyn Braden's Ish Lesson!

For the first day of art class, I wanted to continue my tradition of making sure students understand they should always have confidence in my class. Last year I read The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds and this year I read his book Ish.
For the lesson, they first watched a video I made of me reading the book. (I incorporated music and character voices and the kids seemed to really like the "video book" format.)
The 2nd-5th graders all folded their papers into fourths and made mini "masterpiece" frames around each box. I typed up about 75 "Ish" ideas and randomly gave each student two. They drew my two ideas and then drew their own two ideas.
I did guided "Ish" drawings with my first graders. We did four mini drawings. I taught the Kinders how to draw a fish-ish. Their art was magnificent!
This is a great first day back activity. It sets the tone for the year (never give up!) and refreshes their memory of direction following in art class.

First Week of School!

Here are some of my students first works of art for this new school year. We read a book called The Dot by Peter Reynolds. The book is about a little girl named Vashti who didn't think her art was good. Vashti learned to believe in herself and her talents when she realized her art teacher believed in her. I love reading it to my new students because I want them to know that I believe in them and their artistic talents. My goal this year is to make sure my students know art is a part of their everyday lives. Art is everywhere from the house you live in (architecture), the television shows you watch (performance art, costume design, set design, etc), the clothes (fashion design) you wear and more. Ask your student to point out as many art related things they see today. When you really think about it, artists are truly an important part of all our lives.












Carolyn J. Braden
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New Rotation of Classes!

We rotated classes today, so your student may be in a new related arts class.  The students I just had rotated into Arts and Humanities today. 

 

If your student rotated into my art class, here is what we are working on this week:

5th, 3rd, 2nd, and 1st grades:  Learning about "Art Store", learning the expectations and procedures of the art classroom, making "rainbows and dreams" drawings, making bank envelopes for "Art Store", reading Over the Rainbow by Judy Collins, and beginning sketches for our next project that finishes this sentences "Together we can.......".

Kindergarten:  Reading What Makes a Rainbow, making "rainbow and dreams" drawings, reading The Dot, making "dot/circle" drawings.  On Friday, kindergarten students will be going to an assembly called "Mime Time" during their art class time.