Name Tags and Idea Books

Every year the 1st - 4th graders create name tags that stand up on their table to designate their artist space. We also use these to house our idea books in what I so cleverly call an "idea book taco". They just open the name tag and place their book inside to keep it all together. But hey when you associate things with food, kids listen. 

Here's some 4th grade designs for their name tags. We do block letters and backgrounds. 

I print and design the idea book cover page and staple it to their books. If you're wondering what those books are...well they are just the best donation I've ever had! A parent worked for a paper company and they had all these books full of paper samples...well basically it's a book of blank white paper and luckily she thought of me before letting them get tossed out!

The kids decorate the name tags and the idea book cover in one 60 minute class period. It's a great way to start the year off with following procedures, using crayons and markers and being creative with our names!

Clay Necklaces: Medallions and Beads

Each year with Kindergarten we create these clay necklaces. Day one is all about making the medallion and the beads. You can see a student sliding the beads onto a kabob skewer. We use found objects to create textures in the big medallion. This is a step-by-step guided process. 

Once the beads have been fired in the kiln, the kids get to paint them with tempera paint. The super special surprise being that once they have painted all the white space on their beads, they get to rub gold paint on the surface. Messy day in art! But oh so fun. 

The gold paint takes these beads to whole new level. 

Day Three: We assemble our necklaces after a discussion on symmetry. I demonstrate how to lay out the beads and plan a design that's symmetrical. Below are my models. 

I tie the necklaces together for the students in a special way to ensure they don't fall off and beads don't scatter as they are walking down the hallway. We use "twisteez" wire for these and they're perfect! I love twisteez. I also lay out trays of plastic beads that they can use for 'spacers'. 

Once they finish their necklace, we work on a book page for the Art Book about butterflies and symmetry. In the photo above, you can see hints of that book page. The kids draw a "symmetrical" butterfly, outline in black marker and color with crayons. It's a great thing for early finishers to work on that's on topic and also goes in the art book! Double whammy!

Kindergarten Art Book: 4th 9 Weeks Project

I borrowed this wonderful idea from a fellow metro art teacher and this is my favorite end of the year project for Kindergarten. It's perfect for one day projects that are small and easy to store. After we make about 5-6 pages, we put them all together and the kids take their books home. 

Day One: Cover Page "My Art Book" 

I just used Word to create the layout for the pages...and I print copies for the kids to draw on. It's an easy to get good info on the page for them...then we glue these to a piece of 9"x 12" colorful construction paper. 

Day Two: "Cool Cat/Hot Dog"

The kids love this page...they love to paint with watercolors, but they always get a kick out of the phrasing. We have to review warm and cool colors then we draw the animals together. They get to outline with sharpie then paint. 

I'll have to go take more photos of the remaining pages...but you get the idea. 

Day Three: "Piet Mondrian Collage with Primary Colors"

Day Four: "The Very Hungry Caterpillar with Secondary Colors"

Day Five: "Symmetrical Butterfly" 

Day Six: "About the Artist" - Assemble books

Kindergarten Book Pages

This is our end of the year project that is super fun and there's never any wondering what to teach to Kindergarten at the end of the year! This also serves as a cumulative review for the year. 

Page 1. 

"This is me at school"

Full body self-portrait with markers and crayons. 

Page 2. 

Warm and Cool Watercolor Cats

I printed out these pages and we drew the cats using the Ladibug. They outlined in black permanent marker. I have two separate watercolor trays. We start with the first tray which has 3 warm colors. Then we gather round the demo table and I give out the cool color set with 3 cool colors. They have to return the warm before they get the cools and that helps with some of the confusion.

Page 3.
Mondrian Collages with Primary Colors

We 'play' with composition first, then glue down our Mondrian inspired collages. 

I pre-cut a bunch of primary color shapes. 

After they glue their shapes down, we add black lines. 

Page 4.
Secondary Color Hungry Caterpillar

Page 4: Medieval Architecture

Watercolor Castles!

Page 5: All About the Artist

This is another self-portrait drawing with some info about the artist. This is the page we work on while I come around the room and staple their books together.