Pattern Printing by PreKinder

We all love this printing project.  Patterns are a basic idea for many subjects.  The PreK girls use all kinds of strange and everyday objects for this project.  Even with the mess (which they love) there is alot of exploration and experimentation! 

I saw another art teacher's display of this project many years ago, and she used colored construction paper for the kids to print on.  What a difference that made.. these artworks just POP!

Here is some of the mess, in progress!

 



 

 

I really love the ones where they layered the printing... beautiful!



Suns from Model Magic

Model Magic (from Crayola) is so much fun for little hands! 

 

 

As a group, the PreK girls and I talked about the sun and looked at some examples of South American and Mexican suns.  We talked about what would happen if the sun did not come up in the morning, and what good things we get from the sun.  We figured out that the sun must have been a pretty amazing thing to ancient cultures.  Well, I do not say ancient, but a long long time ago! 

 

The girls roll the Model Magic (MM) into a ball, and then smash it back and forth between their little hands until it forms a good, yummy fat cookie!  They pinch the MM along the edge of the cookie to make the rays, which they can make longer, twist, whatever looks best.  They used crayons or pencils or even marker ends to make eyes, smiles, freckles, or whatever after they have pinched out a nose. 

 

These are set to dry, and then they used water color to add the brilliant colors to their suns.  These suns are guaranteed to brighten everyone's day!

 

 

 







I'm finished... what do I do now???

The hardest thing when teaching art is to have half of a class finished, and the other half twiddling their thumbs!  What to do to keep those hands busy?  There is always free draw, which I think kids should have time to draw whatever they want.  The problem is when that is all that they want to do.  Sometimes, it seems that they finish quickly just so they can free draw.  grrrrr.

I created two free activity drawers in the art room.  Some of the activities are shown here, and I have some other ones as well.  One is a metal board that has architectural magents (domes, columns, windows, etc) to create buildings.  I also have wiki-stixx to make and leave in the bag...

 I got these magnet sets a long time ago, and they love them.  They make all kinds of designs, and it all stays together in the little case...perfect!

 The popular Tanagram puzzle

 

 Tracers, well, they like them.

 

 Paper Dolls.  Kids these days do not know how to make paper dolls.  This was something we made tons of when I was a child.  Once the girls learn how, they love to make them and decorate them.  I think this project helps prediction and other engineering skills.  But mostly, they are fun!

 

 I have a cat's cradle book and several looped yarns for trying the different versions.  I had one girl really do well at this while having some issues in her classroom... she loved that she was the "pro"!

  But, when this is a first graders free draw, ya gotta love the free draw experience as well!!!

Outer Space Aliens.... by PreK!

The PreKinder girls learned how a line can bend and become a shape!  We looked at geometric and free form (organic) shapes.  They drew an outer space alien using shapes.  Since no one has really seen one (we think!) except on TV or in the movies, the aliens could look any way we wanted!  They used  light and bright colored crayons, and pressed hard.  I told them that, during the next class, they would see magic!  They painted over the crayon with black watercolor to create the "outer space."  They were so amazed when the crayon "beat" the watercolor.  I told tham that the crayon does not like the watercolor, we will have to see who wins!  The are constantly yelling out "The crayon is winning, the crayon is winning, Mrs. Brandt!!!"  Love that enthusiasm!

PreK Lines and More Lines!

The PreKindergarten students work on a few projects dealing with line.  For this project, we reviewed the horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines as well as thick and thin lines.  We then looked at all kinds of swirly, wavy, zigzag, and dotted lines.  The girls used Sharpie Marker to draw lines on their paper, and then added color with water colors.  They kind of have a Kandinsky look to them!