Kindergarten and Junior Kindergartners listened to different books in the Elmer the Elephant series: Elmer the Elephant, Elmer in the Snow and Elmer and the Kangaroo by David McKee. I use these books to reinforce ideas such as kindness, encouragement and sharing. After talking about the story, students layered tissues paper squares onto a paper plate to mimic Elmer's patchwork skin. Next they added colorful ears and a rolled up trunk. We reviewed how to safely staple to protect little fingers. Wearing their masks, each child left eager to see the world through Elmer's eyes. Masks are always a hit!
0 Comments
To reinforce our March is Reading month theme of Rainbows of Kindness, my kindy, first and second grade students created Rainbow Ribbons of Kindness. First, we brainstormed things we could say or do to be kind and helpful to each other such as "Do you want to come sit with me" or "your hair looks nice." Next, I showed them how to draw wavy, parallel lines and paint them with rainbow colors. What a lovely way to reinforce kindness in our caring community!
This is a fun way to review different kinds of lines for our elementary art students. The lesson starts with the bullying story Crazy Hair Day by Barney Saltzberg. It's a wonderful story about Stanley who gets all ready for crazy hair day but then, just as he walks into class, he hears the teacher announce, "...and Crazy Hair Day is next Friday." Even his best friend makes fun of him saying, "is that a hair do or a hair don't!" Mortified, Stanley hides out in the bathroom. This story reinforces how teasing can hurt, and ends with the whole class helping Stanley by making their own hair crazy to help him feel better about his mistake.
The art lesson starts with a review of different types of lines, how to press hard and evenly when coloring with crayon to create a wax barrier for the paint in a typical crayon resist. Finally, students paint crazy colors using tempera cakes. Third graders at Oxbow and upper el students at Highland listened to the delightful story Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andrede which tells the story of a clumsy giraffe who is bullied for being different. He learns to believe in himself and becomes the best dancer in the jungle. Students focused on shading to create 3D full moons, blending and painting techniques, then stamp painted the giraffe paper. The finished collages were awesome!
Kindy and first graders enjoyed creating 3D paper hats. Our new student teacher, Mr. Fabinski (Mr. F for short) read The Hat by Jan Brett. The focus of this lesson was being kind to one another no matter what you look like. Next Mr. F reviewed the different types of lines: zig zag, wavy, spiral, etc. Finally, he demonstrated how to create different types of lines using folding and cutting techniques on strips of colorful paper. These were so successful that our second graders wanted to make some too! This spring my kindy, first, second and third grade students enjoyed a delightful lesson on bullying and believing in yourself. We began with the story Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae. Gerald the Giraffe is clumsy and feels he can't dance and is laughed at by the other animals. He meets up with a cricket who encourages him to listen to the breezes in the trees and to tune in to a different song, to hear music that is special for him. He does and then begins to feel the rhythm until he is boldly dancing. Others admire him and soon his confidence and self assurance grows. We took time to decipher all the messages in the story, about treating others more carefully as well as positive self-talk. Students painted the background, stamp painted the giraffe skin paper and mountains paper. We even took time to examine a full moon and talked about how craters on the moon were made. This coincided with April's "blood red moon" which my students were eager to tell me all about! This was a fun way to review different kinds of lines for my upper el. students. (I did this with third through fifth grades). I kicked of this lesson by reading Crazy Hair Day by Barney Saltzberg. It's a wonderful story about Stanley who gets all ready for crazy hair day but then, just as he walks into class, he hears the teacher announce, "...and Crazy Hair Day is next Friday." Even his best friend makes fun of him saying, "is that a hair do or a hair don't!" Mortified, Stanley hides out in the bathroom. With each class, we talked about how teasing can hurt, and what the other students could have done instead. Then we brainstormed what Stanley could have done differently. At the end of the story, I asked the students to predict what might happen when Stanley finally returns to class? Inevitably, someone always guesses that when he walks in, the whole class has done something crazy to their own hair to help him feel better about his mistake. Yes, that's it. For the art lesson, we reviewed different types of lines, how to press hard and evenly when coloring with crayon to create a wax barrier for the paint in a typical crayon resist. Week two, most students finished painting using tempera cakes. |
Archives
March 2024
AuthorMy name is Mrs. Krupa and I'm an elementary art teacher at Oxbow Elementary. I'm a professional harpist turned art teacher of 20 years. I'll share art lessons and ideas on these pages, what works and doesn't. Enjoy! Categories
All
|