Love Bunnies

"Kindies" (I call the kindergarten this) spent a class session using a sponge and learning about "stippling".  After passing out sponges, white paint, and a paint palette (I use recycled half sheets of copy paper whenever we paint with less than 3 colors, because they can just throw them away when done and NO clean up!) we began stippling our rabbits on pink paper.   I did it step by step with them in this order...

1.  In the middle of the paper stipple an oval for the head.
2.  Connect the head to a larger oval for the body.
3.  Add the legs and front paws.
4.  Stipple the ears.  I showed them floppy ears as well as straight ears.

The second class session, we used a black marker to illustrate the details.  Small lines created the furry texture, and each student created there own face.  Don't forget the whiskers!  We used markers to add the hearts and I told them to be creative in how they added them to their painting.  You could use any media, oil pastels, more paint, glitter....you get the idea.

These turned out SO adorable!

Flowers from the Heart

My first graders loved this lesson.  It took two 40 minute class periods. Here's how we did it....

1.  Each chose a stamp and with a marker, stamped around the edge of the paper, staying as close to the edge as possible and keeping the stamp shapes close as well.  ( I made my own stamps years ago using foam and gluing the foam to a small square block of wood.  I got 4 stamps on each block.)  I have had these forever, and this gives them a choice when they get a stamp block.
2.  Then they chose two other colors of markers and followed around the stamp as closely as possible, letting the edge of the stamp dictate the path of the line.  They used a total of three colors to enhance the frame.
3.  Using black sharpie they drew and designed three hearts at the top of their paper, then drew stems and leaves.  I left the colors up to them.  These little people LOVE designing!

Check out some of their work!

 

Warm Hearts

Kindergartners loved designing these hearts!  It was a great chance to teach warm and cool colors, and a fantastic lesson in "filling the space".  We used markers (which they rarely get to use in the classroom).  Some are natural designers, and some kiddos got some pretty cool effects with the markers.  Take a look....

Collage Hearts

I gave my students an 8" x 8" cardboard square and challenged them to create an eye appealing collage using the "heart" as inspiration.  I had all kinds of painted papers, scrapbook paper, printed images, and some of my art examples that I cut up to use.  I also have treasure tubs in my room. These tubs are full of goodies that parents donate and I just can't throw out.

The REALLY challenging part for kids is to be selective when choosing things to put into their composition.  Once they see the treasure tub and all of it's contents, they have a tendency to want to put everything on their collage.  I tell them, that just because they like it, doesn't mean it will go well with their composition.  I limit them to nothing more than 1/2 inch high and it has to be adhered with elmer's glue.  We do not use glue guns.  They were also allowed to draw with markers anything they wanted to add to their work. These were accomplished in two 40 minutes class sessions.