May 4 - May 8

May Flowers and a Mother's Day Gift! (see the Home Page for ideas)

It's time to make floral art, just in time for Mother's Day! With supplies at home, students are challenged to paint, color, draw, or construct flowers. All shapes, colors, sizes, and textures will do -- have fun and make a single flower or a full bouquet to bless Mom for Mother's Day!

April 13 - 17

"Listening" to Art with Kandinsky

Students will watch "Art with Mati & Dada" as they learn about the fascinating artist, Vladimir Kandinsky who "saw" color when he listened to music, and then conveyed those colors and images into his paintings.

After your child watches the video, please provide a blank piece of paper and a medium with multiple colors (can be markers, crayons, paper, paint, pastels ... whatever is best available at your home at this point). Turn on some music (classical, praise singing, acoustic piano, guitar ...). As the music plays, your child will choose colors and apply shapes and objects that are evoked by the music. Note: Encourage your child to really listen ... does the music imply happiness, peacefulness, playfulness, sadness ... ? Which colors possibly represent certain emotions? Are shapes and lines influenced by the music?

Have fun with this project and jot down any thoughts, descriptions, and comments your child says about the piece of art and include that (in the body of the email) with a photo of the finished piece that is emailed to me.

Note: Kindergarten has a live Wednesday, 10:30 a.m. Zoom meeting with me at which time we will do this project. If your child can watch the video before we meet, that would be super helpful. Thank you!

March 30-April 4

Henri Matisse Paper Cut-outs - "Painting with Scissors"

Parents: The students and I had just dipped our toes into the wonderful world of Matisse. The history of this talented and diverse artist is fascinating, and his artwork, whether paintings or cut-outs, provide a BIG SPLASH OF COLOR -- appreciated by all of us right now.

Watch this short video with your child, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy4DUpsC22c

Be sure to point out the connection to Eric Carle's modern-day artwork and our Hungry Caterpillar prior lesson.

Help gather safe scissors, glue or glue stick, and a collection of colorful paper (construction paper, scrapbooking paper ... even magazines and random scraps will do.) Follow the instruction steps on the video and when the masterpiece is complete, snap a photo of your little artist and artwork and send to my email, jmansfield@denverchristian.org, so I can continue to build the online gallery for all to enjoy!

For a mini -beach vacation, refer to Mrs. Mansfield Studio Visit and Lesson Page. More to come soon for art fun and ideas:)

Eric Carle's Mixed Collage Art

In conjunction with Mrs. Waanders Library focus, talk with your child about the beautiful illustrations present in Eric Carle's books.

What materials do you think he uses? How does he combine a variety of cut and torn papers to make an object? Why is his style unique?

Watch this video of Eric Carle reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar and talking about his artwork.

Next, try to make your own picture! You can use paints and paper, tissue paper, or even cut paper from magazines, extra scrapbook paper. Be creative and have fun being an artist like Eric Carle!

In the photo below, this student used a balloon to apply paint to his caterpillar -- super cool texture!