Harold and the Purple Crayon

This is my favorite lesson for kindergarten's first art class. We read "Harold and the Purple Crayon" and then talk about different adventures we could go on if we had magical purple crayons like Harold. The kids only get purple crayons and they can draw adventures on the front AND back of their paper. When they are finished I also have a movie version of the book that I let them watch while the detailed drawers finish up.

Room Idea

Room Idea for First Nine Weeks

I decided to go with a "Welcome to the Pack" theme. I also have a book called "The Crayon Box that Talked" to help with going over rules and getting along in the art room.

Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti

This project was based on the African folk hero Anansi the Spider by Gerald McDermott. We tried two different methods of creating the graphic spider. The first type was flat, the other was to glue the paper legs into a circle. Both methods were successful, it would be a matter of preference. This project was very simple to do and the results are very bold and graphic.

Bigfoot Cinderrrrrella



This project is based on the book Bigfoot Cinderrrrrella by Tony Johnston. We used 1 inch wide paper strips and glued them together. We used clothespins to hold them together to dry while we were building. We experimented with both gluing them onto a piece of paper and also just hanging them up from the ceiling with no background paper. Another fun project that was pretty simple to do, if you used clothes pins... aka "art clamps".

Cloudy with a Chance of .....

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a children's book written by  Judi Barrett and illustrated by Ron Barrett. We had a great time making a project based on this book. Our project ended up being Cloudy with a Chance of Snacks.  We used crayons, watercolors, glue and various snack food items.

Professional Development ~ August 2011

A group of us worked together the past two days exploring children's literature and art projects inspired by them. We had a lot of fun and shared a lot of good ideas. I am going to try to get a few of our projects posted  in the next few blogs.

Aliens from Planet Symmetry

Symmetry

I knew my third graders were reviewing symmetry and I was tired of the old butterfly. So I decided to have them make aliens. Of course they started by picking a color for their alien, folding the paper, and then drawing a curvy line.

It was neat to see all of the different shapes that were created and the students were very excited to decorate their aliens!

Goldfish Matisse style

Goldfish a la Matisse

I came across this lesson in an old Arts and Activities magazine. I decided to try it with my kindergarten students. The results were great!

Day One: Use at least three different colored crayons to rub the paper more than halfway down. At the bottom of the page, glue squares of colored tissue paper. Cut a table from a piece of black paper and glue it on. (I had previously drawn the table line for them so all they had to do was cut)

Day Two: Use a tracer to make the fish bowl. Use blue and green markers to color the water in the fishbowl and then paint with water over the marker. While the bowl is drying, cut out goldfish and leaves. Glue the bowl, fish and leaves to the background.

Organizing Your Art Room

These are the 2010, top 10 art rooms from The Teaching Palette: http://theteachingpalette.com/2010/09/27/art-room-showcase-2010-space-organizing/

Giraffe's Can't Dance...

I've noticed this project on many art blogs. I was always curious, this year I decided to give it a try with my first grade. I loved it! The children loved it! The results were amazing.... so fun. It is crayon resist.