Under the sea, in Prekindergarten

 

 

This is a wonderful multi-media project that the Prekindergarten girls enjoy.  We are lucky to have a huge aquarium near our library, which the girls and I visited when we started this project.  We noted how different each fish was, how they swam up, down, toward and away from us, and the other items in the aquarium. 

The girls drew, decorated and cut out a paper fish which was used to trace onto a slab of clay.  They added textures to the clay fish, which was then fired.  Mat board was painted with cool colors for the water.  The fired fish were painted.  All the fish as well as "rocks" (hole punch outs) and seaweed (they tore green construction paper) were assembled to make the aquarium. 

No need to feed the fish or change the water!

 

I got this idea at a Texas Art Education Conference several years ago.

 

The paper fish as it was traced onto the clay, and the clay fish, before adding details.

 



 

Some finished examples:

They usually glue the seaweed just to the bottom of the board.  I loved the way she made a gentle arch and used that to base the seaweed.

 



 

I loved the placement of the fish.  It was her idea to put the clay fish in the seaweed!

 

 

I love how different both of her fish are decorated, and the face on the paper fish cracks me up!

 

 



Eric Carle, lots of paint, and Kindergarten

Eric Carle is a well known author and illustrator, especially among the younger set.  We watched the video, "Eric Carle, Picture Writer" in class, and then used his methods to create our own collages.  I like how he just makes decorative papers without an image in his head.  He just makes them, and later pulls the sheets he needs to create the image. 

After I cover the room in paper (this is one messy project), I set up for stations to create the colorful papers.  The girls splatter-painted, rolled, scratched, and stamped their hearts out.  They loved it!

 

 

You can see the mess!  During the next two class sessions, they girls cut out shapes for their collage and glued them onto large pieces of paper. 

 



Working on the floor was easier for most of the girls.

 

 



 The one above was one of my favorites!  I loved the rhythm of the snakes!  They are large as well, she used the entire page.  Wonderful!

 

 I loved the ears on the animal on the right!

Using the prints to make a book 1st Grade

The first graders made styrofoam prints of a cityscape, as I posted earlier.  I went through their prints and selected one from each student, which I mounted and then displayed on the boards near their room.  The comments regarding the prints have been awesome! 

The next time the girls came to art, I gave them all of their prints back, from 5 to 25 prints per students. Some were quite prolific! They selected at least 4 prints and mounted them on white copy paper, and then signed the print. There are 4 students at each table, so they kept one print and gave one to each person at their table. If they were so inspired, they could mount more and hand those out to other students. They took two pieces of 9 x 12 construction paper and drew a cover on one sheet. After they were done, they assembled all the prints in the order they wanted, added the cover and back pages, and then I stapled them together.

As you can see, there were lots of prints and activity as the girls selected their prints and mounted them.

 

 

 One of the covers finished, some used "art" as the theme, a few liked the "city print" theme for their book.

And then the final book.  I let them take them home that day.  The parents get to see their own students' work as well as others.  It also is a great way to use the printing process in a practical way, a good reason for having multiple images.

They were very proud and excited about showing off their books!