A Poem inspired by a Kindergartener

Don't Eat the Crayons!

By: Rachel Dillon

I love to teach art,
art class is so fun,
Except when art parts
became food for one.

“Don’t eat the crayons!”
I told Zack, on Monday.
With crayon in his teeth he told me, “OK.”

“Don’t eat your eraser,”
I told Zack on Tuesday.
He swallowed real hard and then asked to go play.

“Don’t lick the blue paint,”
I screeched on Wednesday.
Paint dripped down his chin which he then wiped away.

“Don’t taste the pastels,”
I begged Zack on Thursday.
He spat out three pieces much to my dismay.

Friday came along
and I was scared to teach art
I walked into class
slowly pushing my cart

And there at a table
sat Zack with a smile.
He gave me a paper
he pulled from a file.

It said, “To my favorite art teacher,
Art stuff tastes like gruel.
I’d rather make art,
cuz art is so cool.”

 

Art Auction Items Blog

Kindergarten Collaborative Piece

The art projects are complete. A total of 52 pieces will be on display. The invitations have been sent out and posters are in the school hallways. My checklist is almost full of checks, whew. The last elements on my agenda include: name tags for the auction items; bidding sheets for each auction item; and assembling a team for the auction night to keep track of the bids.

For the parents unable to attend I established a blog, listing each individual auction piece where they can place a bid the night of the event. I'm asking the administration to send an email reminder to the parents the day before and the day of the auction. To bid, parents and family simply leave a comment on the auction item posting. I'll have two people with iPads walking around updating the physical sheets at the auction and then updating, as necessary, the auction item, should the bidding continually change.

The work is almost done but there are factors working against the event that might not make it successful. It is at the end of the school year; parents have an event at the school two days before the auction; and, the cost to attend the dinner auction is high. The lack of success won't be for the lack of beautiful artwork, that is for sure!

Kindergarten Art Auction Piece

This is a collage piece.
Each student has a flower in this
bouquet. One student is the vase. 

Since my kindergarten class has 22 students I'm going to have four bouquets of flowers to assure each student has a flower in the auction. I chose four student's vases that best fit the flower colors.

I created four different flowers for the kids to watercolor paint. I wanted consistency with the design and have the kids really focus on the painting part and not the drawing part. The first week of painting I had them add some crayon resistance to outline or add design to the flowers. The second week of painting I had them just use watercolor and no crayon. I think they were more successful when they had the crayons.

I gave them outlines for three different vases. This time I brought in acrylic (not tempura) paint for them. They used cotton swabs to mix the paint and apply it. I like using cotton swabs to paint with kindergartners better than paint brushes, they fit their small hands better and don't rely as much on fine motor skills.

I will be assembling the four collages for the art auction and watch the 7-8 families enjoy a healthy battle to win the piece. I'll post all of the final art pieces for the auction after I've mounted them.

Kindergarten Art Auction Project

Stacked tea cups

I created a template for the tea cups and the kindergarten students do their cup design with crayon and complete the piece with water color. The number one challenge  on this project was to remind the students not to color the entire cup in with crayon. 

These were my instructions:
1) Create a pattern or design on your cup with crayon. We spent a few moments reviewing line ( zig zag, circles, stars, swirls, etc.)

2) I gave my students four tea cups on one page to work on. I figured I needed to increase my chances on success.

3) After they colored patterns with crayons, I passed out the palettes of water color paint. I needed to remind them that they could work with multiple colors on their cup, but not to mix their watercolors in the palettes.

I'm not a hundred percent happy with the end results. I'm going to repeat the project this week and eliminate the crayon step and see what the students do with more freedom. This time, I'll ask them to simply explore watercolor and play with the color.

Luckily, I have a couple of months to mount and cut out their cups for the final art auction pieces. Five students will be mounted on each piece. They have three other cups that they completed and can keep those to give to their parents. I recognize the children have a hard giving up their artwork, understandably.

Value ART ELEMENT - Elementary Art Project

Artwork Provided by a Kindergarten Student 

This Project was split between two class periods. The goal was to introduce students to the effect color value has on the mood of a piece of art. 

I was very specific on their colors, separating the light colored pencils from the dark colors so they weren't confused. 

Artwork Provided by a Third Grade Student

I drew the butterfly on a computer with Adobe Illustrator and printed it on card stock two-up so that each butterfly could be completed in a class period.

I encouraged the students to create patterns in the wings of the butterflies. When asked if they felt a certain way while working on each piece, quite a few mentioned they felt happier working with the light colors. I know that the colors effected me when I produced the sample. I was much happier working with the lighter colors.