Cock-a-doodle-doo! Kindergarten Wyncinaki Roosters

To continue our trip around the world for our Multicultural Fair, I worked with the Ukraine with one of my kinder classes.  

Mine, and it's not fully symmetrical since it's not centered on the paper...oops!

I've done art from the Ukraine before with a 2nd grade class last, year, we did paper crayon resist watercolor Pisanki Eggs.  They were CUTE!  I didn't think kinder would grasp that concept too well as drawing with white crayon on white paper freaks them out a little since they can't see just what they are drawing (it freaked the 2nd graders out, as well!)  You can find a brief history here if you're interested.

This year, I decided that paper cutting was the way to go!  So Wyncinaki it was!  Since roosters seemed to be EVERYWHERE, a rooster it was as well.  I drew the rooster so that when the paper was folded and cut, we'd end up with the symmetry Wincinaki is famous for.  I copied it on black paper.  Most of my kinders were successful with the folding and cutting, I was surprised to find.  We then glued that bad boy onto a large paper and let dry.  The next class time, we added the combs and wings.

I Think I,m Crazy...A Story of an Art Auction

"Wouldn't it be fun to create a class artwork and then auction it off?!?"

WHAT WAS I THINKING!?!

I had that discussion with my librarian at the beginning of the school year and had been toying with the idea for a while.  With a push from someone else the idea became reality and during Winter break 40 pictures were sketched onto 40 canvases by three people (okay it wasn't 40, but it was pretty close), please remember this for later.

After break, I divided the canvases up into a grid that would be workable for each class, the idea being that each student would get a piece to fill in.  I then lovingly gridded out each of the 40 images THRICE and cut apart one.  I started with three classes a double second (what was I thinking), a third and a fifth.  After ONE attempt by each, I was DONE!  

NO MORE, this isn't working, it's hideous, we need to stop!

So with that a halt was called and I rethought what we were doing...a long time...I almost forgot about them.

But the deadline was fast approaching...these things needed to get done.

Okay, I'm going to give the kids each a piece of paper and the choice of materials.  All they have to do is enlarge the piece...it'll be fine!  Right?!  Um....

After four classes with that approach, I just started drawing the pieces and having the kids color it in, they didn't quite grasp the concept of enlarging. 

So remember the start of this story and all that hard work I and two others put into drawing each picture on the canvas...yeah, that was for naught.  Then I spent even more time drawing things out.  Way to much time went into this, but I do think they all turned out lovely, even the ones the kids did.

So remember as you look at these, there a difference of appearance because some the kids drew and colored, some I drew and the kids colored in.

Kinder worked with Kandinsky:

Kinder drawn circles :0)

First Grade worked with Jim Dine:

First grade drawn hearts :0)

First grade drawn hearts :0)

Second Grade worked with Franz Marc:

I drew all but one of these.

My print out of "Yellow Cow" was really orange, apparently

This class drew their own pieces!  I'm SUPER PROUD of them!!

Third Grade worked with Andy Warhol:

Most of the pieces are the students' work, I fixed a few.

I dew this for them, their first attempt wasn't working out.

All drawn by the kids!  Pretty good for a class that was sort of struggling with enlarging their piece.

Fourth Grade worked with George Rodrigue:

All but one fourth grade class drew their own pieces.  I'm very proud of them!

This is the one I drew.

The fourth graders weren't super thrilled with the way their classes turned out because they still couldn't wrap their heads around the concept...I kept telling them that it was fine and perfect the way they were, I don't think they were buying it.

These were displayed in our library and then raffled off during out Fine Arts night.

An Art Trip to the Desert

Sticking to the theme of Multicultural Art and our Multicultural Fair...

A few of my classes across grade levels picked Egypt as their country of choice.  A 1st grade, a 2nd grade and a few 4th grades (but I ignored that choice for another country they were working with)

I'm also throwing in here the 1st grade that chose the United Arab Emirates since I did a desert inspired project with them as well.

Egypt with 1st Grade

The 1st grade with Egypt requested to do mummies...ACK!  Now, I love my cat mummy project but it's papier mache and that drives me much!  The kids just DO NOT seem to understand my simple mess free directions and it turns into a mess...grrrr.  Anywhos, here's my example:

I do this two ways, it's either a plastic bottle or a toilet paper roll for the body and a wad of newspaper for the head.  Ears can be added if you want to do cats, otherwise they're just plain old mummies.  Papier mache and it's good to go for the next class period.  I do do all the mummy building prep work for the littles, but have let 3rd grade and above build them themselves.  I have a WONDERFUL Reading Rainbow show about mummies that I show as well.

I did also let the littles trace their name in hieroglyph using tracing paper and then they glued it to a cartouche.

The United Arab Emirates with 1st Grade

I was excited when this teacher said they were doing the United Arab Emirates because that meant I could do this project that I'd been hoping to do since last Summer when I stumbled upon it on Pinterest.  I did modify it because we were short on time.

We painted our skies the first day (that took up the whole 50 minutes somehow) and then did the dunes and camels the next class.  I did talk about the difference between the two camels (dromedary [one hump, like a 'D'] and bactrian [two humps, like a big 'B'] ) and how we would be making dromedary because they live in the Middle East, while Bactrian live in Asia (who knew).  I think they turned out super cute!  

The last two are the same project, which happens to be mine, the only difference is the shadow which we added after I took the pictures of the kids work.

Egypt with 2nd Grade

This second grade class did Portrait (or Death) Masks for their Egyptian project.  I showed them King Tut's mask and we discussed why they might have needed them and what they were made out of.  

We did a follow along drawing so the kids would get the correct shape and size of the masks and facial features.  I didn't know that this class was full of really good drawers until this project.

Egypt with 4th Grade

This fourth grade class also was working with France, so I tied the two together.  

Have you heard how the Giza Sphinx lost it's nose?  NO!?!  Well, rumor has it that during the Napoleonic War, some of Napoleon's troops down in Egypt were bored of sitting around in the hot desert so they loaded up their cannons and used the Sphinx as target practice.  One shot hit the nose, knocking it off.

Fun History tie in...even if it's not true!

We did the same sky technique as the first graders and boy did I harp on the fourth graders who were having a tough time!  If a FIRST GRADER can do it, so can you!

We also did the same dune technique...again the first graders did better than the fourth graders...bunch of whiners...they did fine, but it was like pulling teeth with some of them.

I did give them a pre-made Sphinx for the sake of time and identification of such on iconic figure.

We also made out own pyramids.  My example is the bottom picture, I gave my sky to a student who was absent that day and I miss counted how many extras needed to be made.

A Quick Art Trip Around the World!

Every year my school hold a Multicultural Fair.  IT'S MY FAVORITE TIME OF THE YEAR! I wind up doing 30 (or so) different projects based on 30 (or so) different countries.  It really is a trip around the world in Art. Here's how it's worked:
Each grade is given a continent and the class can then pick the country.  I find this nice because SOMETIMES I can't find anything that I can elementarify for a country so we do a generalized project from the continent.  Not the best, but it works and the kids are happy.  I also LOVE that they see that Art ties into their classroom (even though I tell them ALL the time that it does...why don't they listen?).
Each year it's been run slightly differently, but in essence it's been the same each and every time.

This year is not the same and I'm not happy.  Again, IT'S MY FAVORITE TIME OF THE YEAR! This year it's been made optional for classrooms and even though I offered WAY in advance and again a month out..not even 10 teachers accepted my help :0(  Thankfully some of my trustworthy, always up for teamwork teachers did.

I worked with Egypt, England, Ireland, France, the United Arab Emirates, Mexico, India, Australia, for certain classrooms (more on those in another post or two).

The rest of school finished our End of Year Project (referred to as EoYP on my weekly schedule, another post as well).  If they finished it, they were able to take quick trip around the world.  I pulled out all my extra copies from last year's Multicultural Fair and slowly add this years.
Kids were able to "visit" Scotland, China, Japan (no example picture, I missed it somehow), Thailand, India (twice), Ukraine (twice), Ecuador, Egypt, Northwest America.  They had a BLAST.

From the top left green paper: Ecuador Bread Baby, Italy Mona Lisa (it's laminated, sorry about the glare), Norway Viking Ship, Egypt Portrait Mask, Scotland Tartan Weaving, China Lantern, Scotland Bag Piper Paper Doll, North America Totem Pole, India Mehendi, Ukraine Psyanki Egg, Thailand Diwali Footprints.

Gee, it's Been a While!

I keep meaning to post, but life has a way of getting crazy each and every time I try.
Projects are also taking longer than planned due to our 6 day rotation schedule pushing me off my traditionally planned monthly lessons. 

Not this one, this one was done A WHILE ago. 

Others that I wanted to share.

So here are the totally cute Kindergarten Calaveras from October that I found STILL on my phone.

This is another Pinterest project (she did 2nd grade, but since I gave the kindergarteners a printed skull, I figured they could do it) and I'm SO glad I found it!

My school's population is majority rule, Hispanic, so it's always nice to find things that the kids know a little bit about before hand (not always true) and can relate more to than my White, European heritage and education.

I gave the kiddoes a skull template to cut only because I wanted them to be highly successful at keeping this LARGE!  If they cut too much out, they'd still end up with a big enough head for our purpose. 

We did "I do, you do" style teaching and just getting the skull, collar bone and ribs cut and glued took one 50 minute class.  FINE BY ME!  That means more time for the fun details!

Next class I showed them how to create eyes, nose and a mouth, really any shape they wanted to use was fine.  Most looked like mine (circle eyes, triangle nose and a half circle mouth) , but there were a few that had the cutest half circle eyes that made it look like their Calaveras was SUPER happy.

I showed them how to create a simple top hat (for the boys) and where the flowers could be placed (in the "hair" for the girls or as a boutonniere).

I think I've found a keeper project, I really liked it and the Kinders seemed really excited about it.

I LOVE this guy's mustache!

A Lovely Lady!

Very Dapper!

Pretty Lady!

A Blue Dog Day

Fourth grade is working with George Rodrigue and his Blue Dog.  I'm loving the lesson, I'm not too sure about the kids. (More about them at a later date)

Kindergarten, on the other hand,  fell in love with my simple pencil drawing example that I hadn't taken down yet because I went for a bathroom break (there isn't enough time in my day for bodily functions, but I make due, as I'm sure we all do).
So Kindergarten felt all grown up and got to do the big kid project, even though we colored with crayons while the big kids are going to paint.
Here are a few Kindergarten Blue Dogs:

A quick Goldsworthy inspired moment

My seven year old made this this morning while waiting for the school bus.
It's nice to start with the day a smile.