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. 

Establishing a Choice-Based Art Program for Kindergarten

At the start of my 5th week of my second year as a K-2 art teacher, I am already re-evaluating.  Kindergarten is always a challenge for me.  It's a challenge I love, but a challenge none the less.  I think the real root of my problem is that I am afraid to take the leap towards what I know is going to be the best fit for me and my students.  I am stepping closer and closer towards establishing a choice-based curriculum for my kindergarten students.  The big hurdle is the implementation and the training period involved in starting a curriculum of this nature.  The other fear is how to keep track of ALL those different ideas and projects going on at once...and what do you do with the students who are constantly picking up new papers, making a few scribbles and then moving on to the next thing...is that even a bad thing??  This is always where my brain goes any time I sit down to truly start making plans...question after question..."what if" after "what if"'... however, I think the time has finally come.  I am going to force myself over the hurdle, tune out my inner-skeptic, and seriously start implementing what I because I think would be a really successful change in how I teach kindergarten art.

First steps: 


Room arrangement.  I rearranged my room to create a more "center" friendly space.   A few of my favorite features...I decided to use the sand table I inherited from a retiring teacher to hold drawing tools and books.  I also asked our school custodian to remove the leg extensions from one of my tables so that it is low to the ground.  This creates a really great alternate work space for students.  In the next couple weeks I will be utilizing counter space and drawers to create a collage center, a painting center, and a building center. 

Next steps:
Teach/train students how to use each station, expectations, etc.
Establish a tracking method for assessment.
Monthly project themes.
Establish work groups?...perhaps?
 

Soon to be Painting Center

Counter space and drawers will soon hold various Centers

Lower work table with leg extensions removed. 

Sand table as storage space

Art Fundraiser Projects Underway

All classes started their Art to Remember fundraiser projects this week.  They started out a little bumpy...my Monday classes will be re-doing a step next week, but by the end of the week I think we worked out all the hiccups.  This is the first time I've attempted this kind of project.  There are quite a few factors to consider when planning the actual art project aspect.  I have already learned a lot and know exactly what I would do next time--assuming I do this again...

1. Consider timing.  I chose to do the Fall fundraiser so that orders would be ready in time for the holidays.  This means we had to start the project very early on in the school year.  On the plus side, we get it out of the way right away, and it also guarantees a simple beginning-of-the-year project.  On the downside, this is obviously a more product-based lesson than most.  Early in the school year, this is a little tricky to achieve especially for kindergarteners. 

2. Keep it Simple!  I often have to remind myself of this at the K-2 level, but it is especially important for a project of this nature.  My Monday classes will be restarting their projects as a result of my failure to remember this!!  Live and learn...

3. Allow some room for student choice.  In the future I hope to put more fore-thought into the student-choice aspect.  Since this is a personal project that students and their families will likely be giving as  gifts it would be nice to involve some level of student choice that the result is more personal to them.  Bottom line, I think families will enjoy the result no matter what. 

For some great info on other art fundraisers check out this post from the Art of Education...http://www.theartofed.com/2012/06/08/the-ultimate-guide-to-art-fundraisers/

Dots, Ish, and Magic

School is back in full swing and we are loving our art rooms!!











Here is what we've been up to in art class these first few weeks...

 
Kindergarten artists started their year in art by creating Magic Carpets, (photos coming soon!) an idea I borrowed from Hope at Mrs. Knight's Smartest Artists, a blog I discovered over the summer that has many wonderful project ideas. We started out by focusing on drawing lines of all sorts on our papers. Next, students added cut paper shapes to their magic carpets for another layer of line, color, and shape.  The overall goals of this project were to start refining drawing skills and to practice cutting and gluing.  Additionally, this simple project allowed space in those kindergarten brains for yet another set of new  routines.  Those first few weeks of school are so exciting, but can also be really overwhelming. We will be moving on to a watercolor and crayon resist project next...also fairly magical.



First grade artists are just wrapping up projects centered on the book The Dot, by Peter H. Reynolds. We read the book, then students were asked to create their own dots just like the girl in the story.  The message of the story is that one should never be afraid to make their mark.  First graders had a blast making their mark...





Second grade artists also enjoyed a book by Peter H. Reynolds.  We read the story Ish and discussed what it means if something is "ish."  It's not quite one thing, and not quite another...it's "ish."  We applied this concept to our drawings.  Setting out to draw something can often be a challenge and a frustration if it doesn't turn out looking the way it should.  Well, the story Ish is meant to remind artists of all ages that thinking and drawing "ish-fully," is quite a wonderful thing.









Much more to come next week as we get started on our Art to Remember fundraiser projects.  To coincide with this project students at all levels will be thinking about and discussing the idea of giving and receiving gifts--an art in itself!  Stay tuned...

Sunshine in the Scrap Box

I'm currently getting ready to move to a new apartment and am also getting ready to move into a brand new art room...yay!  With all this moving on the horizon, I've been sorting and packing at home and at school.  On my last day of cleaning at school, I found a stack of unclaimed, no-name drawings.  They were some sketches we had done in preparation for a bigger project about landscape painting. Instead of throwing them into the recycling bin, I decided to cut them up and start stocking the collage station for next year.  After running them through the paper cutter quickly, I noticed when I got to the last corner of the stack of papers, there were about four beaming yellow suns in a nice, neat stack.

It may be hard to imagine, but this little discovery made me realize something that I particularly love about teaching art and about art in general.  The human brain responds to the challenge of creating pictures and making marks in very similar ways.  I would go so far as to say that they are almost universally human.  There are books upon books written about this very notion.  Human mark-making can be traced from the 23 kindergarteners in my art room in 2012 all the way back to the primitive folks who created those early paintings in the caves of Les Caux.

In this ordinary moment, seeing those suns all stacked up, illustrated one simple truth--in today's world of huge diversity from student to student, where differentiation is the number one key to success, it is still a pretty safe bet that 8 out of 10 students between the ages of 5 and 8, when asked to draw a landscape, will draw grass, maybe some trees, blue sky, and most likely a bright shiny sun  tucked just-so in the corner of the paper because it simply doesn't feel right to put it anywhere else.  Maybe I'm mistaken, but it's not my place to teach this out of them...the sun will migrate from the corner of the paper in due time.

For now, It's comfortable in the corner, and...

If you're lucky it will have sun glasses and a smile. 

Needless to say, I decided to memorialize this discovery and plan to hang these in my art rooms in the fall.

Happy Summer!

Along with many teachers at this time of year, I am breathing a huge sigh of relief...we made it to summer.  I'm also feeling extra great for having completed my first year--and my year of teaching K-2 art from a cart.  New art rooms, here I come!  I'm happy to be done, but I feel  like I'm having to guide my brain step-by-step back into a calm, clear state.  Going from being SO busy, to not busy is a hard transition to make, but a good problem to have.  I'm thinking a couple days at my easel in total silence with only my cat for company will cure me.  In the mean time, I'm starting to catalog lessons and photos taken in the last few weeks of school.  I had hoped to share them sooner, but the weeks just got too crazy...I'm  not a blogger of that caliber yet. 

My kindergarteners ended the year making books.  We read the book "One" by Kathryn Otoshi.  It is an excellent art book that also shares a great anti-bullying message.  The characters in the book are colors.  The color Blue is feeling bad because the color Red is mean.  Red is mean to all the colors until One shows up and stands up to Red.  As all the colors join One, they also turn into numbers...they "count."  So the overall message is "everyone counts." 

When I first read the book, I wasn't sure if the kindergarten brain would compute the double meanings in the story.  I was proven wrong.  Some were a little slower to catch on, but the vast majority got it right away and absolutely loved the book.  The other really great part was the conversation it sparked.  At one point, the author describes why Blue likes each color--yellow is sunny, orange is outgoing, purple is regal, etc.  When it came to Red, I asked students what they guessed Red would be and why didn't Blue like Red?  Their answers were so amazing.  Some said Red would be hot, angry.  One student said that red is the color of a stop sign, so he probably tells the other colors to "stop" all the time.  Two students in different classes (amazingly) said that Blue is like water and Red is fire or lava so if they get too close "blue will put red out" and he won't be there any more.  This part of the project, in my mind, was more beneficial than the actual art work.  It was a good reminder to me, that having a chance to voice these ideas with their peers in a comfortable environment leads to more growth than the actual art project.  No need to rush through the story or the project just to get them moving.  (This was true at the end of kindergarten anyway, in the fall, no chance. :) )

One of the projects First Graders ended the year with was a paper weaving project.  I found this lesson on Artsonia and adapted slightly.  They made Bugs in Rugs.  First, students made a design on a full 12x18 piece of paper.  They used rubbing plates, stencils, etc.  Next, they used rulers to draw straight vertical lines across their paper.  Some also numbered each strip.  After making their paper "loom," students started weaving.  The numbers on the strips helped a lot and was a good math connection.  If they wove the strips in order, the weaving pattern was easily figured out.  Students new they were on the right track if they could only see odd numbers at the bottom of their page. 

When weavings were finished, they made bugs.  I had ordered a couple boxes of Stick Its--basically colorful packing peanuts, the kind that dissolve in water--and hadn't come up with a good use for them.  Turns out they are great for making little things like bugs.  Students also used pipe cleaners for legs and sequins for eyes and decoration.  All in all, the project went really well.  For some students the weaving was really tough, but making bugs made up for it.  For me, it was a good lesson in differentiation. When in doubt add an extra fun step like this--even if it is just cute for the sake of cute.

Busy. Busy. Busy

I'm in the midst of finishing clay projects with all three grades, K-2, from my art cart...insert scream.  The kids are loving it, so all the extra work is worth it.  Enough said there.  All the stress, hair pulling, etc. that the above mentioned has caused was greatly reduced today because I got to set foot in my BRAND NEW art room for the very first time.  Yay!  Huge storage rooms, tons of windows, and 3 yes THREE sinks.  Cannot wait.