Carpenter Art Room: Kindergarten- End of the Year

Wow! Times really does fly. Below you will find the remainder of the projects the Kindergarteners did this school year. And although it is Summer Vacation I can tell you I was amazed by their work everyday.

I forgot to post these trees in the Fall. The images are based on Gustav Klimt's Tree of Life. Also, I read Leaves Fall Down: Learning About Autumn Leaves by Lisa Bullard and Nadine Rita Takvorian.
Students learned how branches and leaves look.

The color wheel below was used to reinforce the concept of the color wheel and how colors are related. We discussed primary: red, yellow and blue as well as secondary: purple, orange and green. They also learned about warm colors (red, orange and yellow) and cool colors (blue, purple and green). Students made a crayon color wheel as well.

An experiment with clay, glaze and marbles produced these pinch pot gems.

During the month of February we focus on celebrating diversity. The Crayon Box That Talked is a great book to read to young children. Celebrating differences is such a great concept to teach young children.

Students explored and discovered texture and patterns building their African Masks. Students went to the University of Michigan Museum of Art in downtown Ann Arbor and saw real African Masks.

These are the masks they drew on their own and below are ones they colored after the museum visit.

Students learned about how to build a snowman by applying their own knowledge of building. Students used large, medium and small snowball to create their balance snowmen. They also applied their knowledge of patterns. The Biggest Snowman Ever by Steve Kroll and Jeni Bassett was read as well.

Staying with the theme of Winter I read Flip and Flop by Dawn Apperley. Students were reminded of friendship, sharing and improvising.

Students combined their knowledge and created a winter landscape of their own. Students ask for help with drawing a bird and bunny. Some drew deer as well.

A big theme in Winter is getting sick and the importance in washing your hands. Students made their own germs and I read Germs Are Not For Sharing by Elizabeth Verdick and Marieka Heinlen.

2013 marked the Year of the Snake for the Chinese New Year. Students combined patterns and textures.

Dr. Seuss's Birthday os on March 24th. I read the Lorax to the students and we discussed the importance of not being greedy and wasteful especially with paper. Below are their collages.

In Math students learn about 3D shapes: cylinder, cones, cubes and spheres. We practice the shapes and add shadows.

My favorite theme for the year is pets. This year I allowed students to tell me what pets they have and what pets they want. Bunnies, pigs, frogs, turtles and birds were a few we drew. The pig, bunny and frog were inspired by the book Doodle All Year by Taro Gomi.

I read Just How Long Can A Long String Be and No Two Alike by Keith Baker. The caged birds were fun to do.

Uncle Andy's Cats by James Warhola is great book about cats. The famous pop artist Andy Warhol had many cats all named Sam.

My students love dogs so we had to include them.

We discussed what a still life is and I showed them work by Picasso, Matisse, Cezanne and VanGogh. Students drew the still life on their table. I allowed them to add their mom's favorite colors for their Mother's Day Gift.

Insects always have a way of sneaking into the Art room as Art. I read The Very Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle. Students created fire ants, ladybugs and bug jars. Students also made picnics with ants carrying the food away.

At Carpenter we have a Teaching Garden. I asked students about plants they would like to plant. Ee also discussed what a vegetable and what a fruit is. We played a matching game with images of vegetable and their words. Below are their diagrams of how the plants grow. Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert was a great read for this project.

The Artist Who Painted A Blue Horse by Eric Carle was the inspiration for the work below.

Matisse's Waterlilies inspired this work. We added the frogs because of the book If I Hopped Like a Frog by David Schwartz and James Warhola.

The Big Orange Splot by Daniel Pinkwater is always a good book to go along with drawing buildings.

We talked about the Zoo one day and students seemed interested in Pandas. I read a book on Pandas and found out the ALL Pandas are owned by the Chinese Government and Zoos borrow or rent them.

Hippos were also interesting to the students. We created our own Egyptian Blue Hippopotamus Statue which I saw last summer at Louvre in Paris.

I'm the Biggest Think in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry inspired the work below. Students learned about crayon resists and how to combine simple shapes to make complex animals. Mr. Davis made a whale for these creatures.