In the Art Room: First Day of Art with Kindergarten!

This week I've had kindergarten for the first time! They are all kinds of wild, crazy, fun and squirrelly! I recorded a class on their first day and thought I'd share it with you. We ALWAYS do these paper sculptures on the very first day. They LOVE it, everyone is successful and it's great fun. Here's a video of me teaching this lesson:

If you want all the details on this project, then be sure and check out this blog post! I go in to great detail on just how I go about teaching this on the very first day. 

Y'all might recall that this is a lesson that I did with everyone last year...but I did it as a Getting to Know You activity. You can read all about that here. 

I have a lot to say about kindergarten as they are the toughest but funnest (says me) group to teach. You can read more about kindergarten in my art room here. 

After two 30 minute art classes on these sculptures, we jump into our LINE unit! You can read all about that right here! 

Read more »

In the Art Room: My First Day with Kindergarten!

I don't often repeat my art lessons. Mostly because I get new ideas, like to try knew things and it keeps me engaged and excited to teach. However, I do struggle with the kindergarten set. I find them a challenge because they came with in so much of a broad range. It's tough to find projects that teach, engage and empower such a wide range of kiddos. For that reason, when I find something that works with kindergarten, I stick with it. Such is how I created my unit on LINE. 

I've been doing this unit for several years know and I always find that it works for my students. We start on the very first day of art with this project. I recently filmed myself teaching kindergarten on their first day of art. You can find that here:

For time, I did shorten the clip. Here is what you missed:

* When the kids walk in and I'm getting them seated on the floor and introducing them to our entrance routine, I play this short video on LINE. 

* From there, I introduce myself and have the kids say my name (as seen in clip). Then I call roll. This allows me to greet the kids and start to learn their names as well as insure that they learn mine. 

* Now we've sat for some time so from here, we stand and stretch. Hence the dance moves.

* After that, we dive into the lesson. I don't use too much vocabulary here...my focus is on getting them to correctly make an arch that stands so they can have immediate success. Success on the first day leads to a positive experience and happy kids. Things that are "too hard" or cause them to struggle and/or give up and what I try to avoid with kindergarten. I also want them to understand how I use glue in my art room. Since we paint the glue on with a brush, this will later help them know how to properly hold and use a paint brush!

* After creating, we "clean". All that means is we put our work in a designated spot and return to the floor. From there, I play the LINE video again as a wrap up and cool down. 

* Then we line it up and head on out! First day in the books.

On their second day in art, I'll introduce them to LINE vocabulary with Larry the Line!

Larry then feeds directly into learning and creating more lines!

On our third visit to art, we'll start to explore the next step in my LINE unit which is painting! You can check that out here. 

By the way, here is a great technique that I learned from Mona Brooks' Drawing with Children book. It's a GREAT way to bring calm back to your kindergarten art room.

Thank you for letting me share! I hope y'all have a great week. Would LOVE to hear your fave kindergarten tips, tricks and lessons!

Read more »