Kindergarten

Here's what we've been working on!...

JUNE:  Wikki "Stick" Figures... Doing Things

MAY:  Color Mixing Practice

We practiced color mixing with tempera paint. We learned about the primary and secondary colors and what it means to experiment! With color mixing it is so important to take the time and wash our brush... otherwise we make colors we don't want to use! First, we mixed colors for our equation worksheet. Second, we used our color mixing skills to paint a beach scene! We hope our color mixing practice makes you excited for summer today!

National Standard: ((VA:Cr2.1.Ka) Through experimentation, build skills in various media and approaches to artmaking. 

MAY:  3D Self-Portraits

We created 3-D self-portraits. We practiced drawing all the features of our face and learned about the two magic lines that help us arrange these features: 1) Our eyes line up with the top of our ears, 2) the bottom of our nose lines up with the bottom of our ears! We used skin tone, hair color, hair length and texture, clothing design, and accessories to help make these portraits really feel like us! The materials we used were colored construction paper, scissors, glue, and crayons. We hope our portraits makes you "smile" today!

National Standard: (VA:Cr3.1.Ka)  Explain the process of making art while creating. 

APRIL:  Stamp it!

For our project this month we learned about a new type of art... printmaking! To start, we designed our own printing plates by gluing foam shapes to pieces of cardboard. We created repeating patterns,  objects like a flowers or cars, or unique freeform designs. Once dry, the printing plates worked like stamps! Finally, we used tempera paint and paint brushes to create our final, full size, print. Each print is made by stamping our design 4 times. We hope our artworks get "stamped"  into your brain today!

National Standard: (VA:Cr2.1.Ka)  Through experimentation, build skills in various media and approaches to artmaking.

MARCH:  Shape Monsters

We made shape monster collages! The first step in creating these imaginary creatures was cutting our shapes. We each selected, traced, and cut 5 shapes and stored them in a bag. The monsters body was a big shape, and the arms and legs were small shapes. Next, we practiced using overlapping to attach our monster's arms and legs. To hide the place where our arms and legs attached, we put the glue on the shapes and then flipped our monsters over... ta-da! Finally, we decorated our backgrounds using metallic markers, and crayons. We hope our collages help you have a "monster-ously"  fun day!

National Standard: (VA:Cr3.1.Ka)  Explain the process of making art while creating. 

JANUARY/FEBRUARY:   Weaving

For this project, we learned about weaving. Weaving is an art process used in many different cultures to make blankets, clothes, baskets, decorations, and more. For our weavings, step 1 was to create the loom. A loom is the structure used to hold the threads of a material such as wool, cloth, or yarn.  We decorated the popsicle sticks, and then built the loom by placing the sticks on the grid paper. We glued them together using liquid glue and let them dry. Finally, we used neon yarn and paper scraps left over from the first grade abstract landscapes to complete our weavings. We practiced using the "over, under, over, under..." pattern. We hope our weavings brighten your day!

National Standard: (VA:Cn11.1.Ka) Identify a purpose of an artwork 

JANUARY:   Portfolios

 Guess what?!... our art show will be here before we know it! More news regarding the show can be found on the "events and happenings" page. To prepare, we have begun creating portfolios. Artist portfolios are large folders that are closed on 3 of the 4 sides. Portfolios help artists keep all of their artworks in one place, they help artists travel with their artworks, and they protect the artworks from being damaged. Portfolios are a piece of art themselves! We each designed our own portfolios as a way to represent who we are as unique artists. Up next, it will be time to fill the portfolio with all of the artworks we have made so far this year. We hope you enjoy looking through our portfolios some day soon!

National Standard: (VA:Pr4.1.Ka) Select art objects for personal portfolio and display, explaining why they were chosen.

DECEMBER/JANUARY:   It's a pair! 

Brrr! Our kindergarteners are ready for winter. For this project we first made magic happen by using an oil pastel and watercolor resist technique.  Our backgrounds were painted using the cool colored watercolor paints. Next, we used our own hands as tracers to create the shape of our mittens. We designed them with lines and shapes and created a matching pair! We learned that many things come in a pair like shoes, socks, and even our eyes! Our mittens were made from warm colors... we wouldn't want cold hands! Finally, we attached our mittens to our background, added ribbon to connect our pair, and some of us even added sparkly snow! We hope our mittens make you feel "cozy" today! 

National Standard: (VA:Cr1.1.Ka) Engage in exploration and imaginative play with materials. 

DECEMBER:   National Inclusive Schools Week, Inspired by: Henri Matisse

As a way to celebrate National Inclusive Schools Week, our kindergarteners learned about the French artist, Henri Matisse. Henri began his career as a painter, but when he got older he became ill. He spent most of his time in bed, and could no longer walk; he needed to use a wheelchair to get around. He was also unable to paint anymore, so he picked up scissors and began to create a new kind of artwork! Henry is now famous for his large scale organic shape paper cutout creations…just like the ones we were inspired to make here. We each created our own organic shape paper cutout and added details with markers to turn it into something from our imagination. Finally, we placed it on our favorite spot on the larger paper to help create our grade-level collage. Some shapes are big, some small, some overlap, and some do not! We hope our collage inspires you to stay "inclusive" today!

National Standard: (VA:Cr1.2.Ka) Engage collaboratively in creative art-making in response to an artistic problem. 

OCT./NOVEMBER:   Animal Emphasis

For this project, we learned about emphasis. Emphasis means making one object the focus of an image or artwork. This can be done by playing with color, size, or both. We are emphasizing our animals by making them really big! The first step was drawing a safari or jungle animal of our choice using different lines and shapes. We used some of the lines we practiced when making our line art lanterns (wavy, zig-zag, etc.). Next, we added details from our animal's environment, outlineD our drawing, and finally colored it using watercolor paint. We hope our safari/jungle animals “energize” your day.

National Standard: (VA:Re.7.2.Ka) Describe what an image represents.

OCTOBER:   Line Art Lanterns!

Our kindergarteners designed and created their own paper lanterns using black tempera paint, paint markers, streamers, and glue! For this project, students learned about the tradition of creating paper lanterns; they are used for light and decoration! To decorate their lanterns, students learned about line and how line can create shape! They used their creativity to come up with their own intricate line designs and used bright colors to help them stand out. We hope our lantern display “lights up” your day.

National Standard: (VA:Re.7.1.Ka) Identify uses of art within one’s personal environment. 

SEPTEMBER:   Celebrating International Dot Day! (September, 15th)

National Standard: (VA:Cr2.1.Ka)  Through experimentation, build skills in various media and approaches to art making.

WEEK  1  WARMUP :  "A Letter About Me"

We designed the first letter of our first name using crayons and large colored pencils. This was our art room warm up! These pieces were a way for us to practice and prepare for a creative year. We brainstormed ways to decorate our letters, shared thoughts and ideas with others,  drew some of our favorite things, experimented with materials, and practiced using the “white space" of the page.

National Standard: (VA:Cn10.1.Ka) Create art that tells a story about a life experience