Kindergarten Artistic Behaviors in Action

My kindergarten students and I are finally falling into a good groove with our choice based art centers.  They have been working with drawing, painting, collage, and building centers.  (Photos of center arrangements and visuals coming soon.)  It has been wonderful to see their ideas blossoming and their skills becoming more focused.  It has also been a very valuable teaching lesson for me as well.  I have always wanted to teach this way, but am surprised at how difficult it's been to break away from the cookie-cutter standard that we often expect of art programs designed for small children.
I'm looking forward to next year when I can roll out this program from day one with a lot of the guess-work out of the way.  Luckily, this year's students really haven't noticed that they are essentially guinea pigs in this experiment.

We start each class with a "meeting" to discuss a new skill or art word.  As I was wrapping up my demo at the start of a class this week, a boy in the front row raised his and asked, "Can we go play NOW?"  For an instant I thought, "NO! This is ART class not PLAY time!"  And then I came to my senses, and said, "Of course, go play...but use your artist brain."  Here are some of their beautiful creations...

Centering in Kindergarten

Last Wednesday, my last kindergarten class of the day was sleepily traipsing into the art room.  As one student walked passed me on his way to the carpet, he through his back and said, "Ugh. School is rough!"  He wasn't looking at me or his teacher.  He wasn't seeking a reaction...granted this was from a student who has a flare for the dramatic...even taking this into account, I still felt that his comment was genuine.  It made me stop and think.  It also laid to rest any uncertainty I was still feeling about my quest towards Choice-Based teaching at the kindergarten level.  School IS rough for many students in many ways.  Period.  Especially during these early months of the year when kindergarten students are learning and testing...and learning again and testing again...the boundaries.  The kindergarten school day is much more academic than it used to be.  This means that the time left for simple behavior and social education becomes limited.  It doesn't go untaught by any means, but with the added pressure of getting students up to speed academically, these basic lessons about what it means to be a person out in the big world don't get the focus they need...in my personal opinion.  In order to feel as if I am making some effort toward rectifying this imbalance, it seems the least I can do is bolster our students' awareness of their surroundings, their community, and eventually the concept of a greater good in general.  Sounds like a lofty goal, I know.

So, with an eye toward the greater good, I'm finally making some headway on the next steps in the slow-but-sure implementation of Choice Based Centers in my kindergarten art room.  I have resigned myself to the fact that it is going to take some time.  In fact, it is better if it takes some time.  I have also started gearing my projects and classroom procedures towards the eventual roll-out of full student choice.  I have found tremendously helpful insight in the book Engaging Learners Through Artmaking: Choice Based Art Education in the Classroom by Katherine Douglas and Diane Jaquith.  They very clearly state that the progression for teacher driven curriculum to full student choice should happen over time...for obvious reasons; though, for those of us who sometimes have trouble being patient when it comes to processes of this sort, fortitude is key.