Painting with kindergarten can be a daunting task...especially if you approach it at the beginning of the school year. My kindergarten recently completed these paintings on their second week of school. The goal of this lesson is simply to teach my painting procedures: how we hold our brush, the parts of the paintbrush, how we dip for our paint, what to do if the paint drips, how to clean our brush between colors and how to clean up when class is over. Oh, and have fun! Those are the main objectives for this lesson. I started doing this lesson last year with squares of paper and a sticker in the center as a guide for students to paint around (see below). This year, I decided to have them paint on 14" cardboard pizza rounds (found at Gordan Food Services) and I love how they turned out.
Here's a one minute video filled with as many tips for this lesson as I could squeeze in:
And here's our paintings from last year...so you can totally do this on square paper, no pizza rounds needed!
I've created a couple of videos to share with you on this process. However, if you are viewing this blog post from your phone, my videos may not appear. So you may want to hop on over to my YouTube channel (and subscribe cuz why not?!) and see them there.
One thing I tried when we were printing out dots for Dot Day this year was to create a warm and cool color paint tray. One day the kids used a warm color tray and the next day they swapped with their neighbors for a cool color tray. This allowed the kids to use all of the colors while not muddying up the trays.
Wanna see me teaching painting to kindergarten? Well, here's a video. It covers everything I wish to share with my students on painting procedures and routines for their first painting adventure! It's from 2019.
We are officially back in school and in full swing! Our first days of art were spent printing dots after reading The Dot! We used Gelli-Arts plates to print our dots because I found that I had about 20 brand new round plates in my storage closet (wow, the things you find when you clean). Here's the video I created for my students:
If you cannot see this video then it's because you are looking at my blog from your phone. Super annoying, I know. It's a blogger thing, it's not you. So here's the direct link to my YouTube page. You should totally subscribe because I add new content all the time.
Now I know many of you don't have those Gelli Arts plates (and they are a bit expensive) so...I came up with an alternative for you: pie pans from Dollar Tree! I am using the pizza pie pans here:
First grade through fourth were printing which means I had drying racks brimming with art. So a way to keep up with everything was clipping clothes pins with the teacher's names on them between the classes on the drying rack. Once dry, the clips were used to hold the artwork together. I know...every now and then I have a decent idea.
After two 30 minute art classes of printing, my students looked at all of their prints and picked their fave for display. They then had to give their piece a title and 'sign it' like Vashti so it could be displayed in the hallway. Here was a video I created to explain this process:
So I just noticed that the last time I posted here was MID-JUNE. Y'all! How did summer vanish so quickly!? A large part of my summer was dedicated to putting together The Art Teacherin' Extravaganza which, if you follow me on Instagram, you got to follow along on that journey (and if you were there in real life, well, you know what a blast it was!) Between the Extravaganza and shipping out copies of Art Teacherin' 101, it was a full summer that went by in a blink!
But now we're heading back and, honestly, I'm not sad about it. In fact, I'm pretty excited about this new school year. I have a lot of new ideas I wanna try; books I've been reading with techniques I want to implement; and some new projects that I know the kids will love.
But first things first: we gotta dive into our Rules and Routines. Last year, I really dropped the ball on this one. Everything was just a mess last year with the constant uncertainty that I let go of my normal Back to School routines...and it showed for the rest of the year. I was burnt to a crisp at the end of the year and was so ready to hit the reset button. This year, I'm determined to take it slow and try to stay more organized. I'll let you know how that goes ;)
I like to start the first days of art covering rules and routines...but I HATE talking about them, it's so dry! So I always have a short video that touches on them...and allows us to move on to other First Day things before coming back to them in following art classes. Here's my latest video that I'll be showing this week...I decided to include some personal things in this year's video. I find that the kids are always curious about what we were like as children as well as our personal lives so I decided to add that to the video this year. Here it is:
More Back to School stuff will be shared here soon...but I do write about it A LOT in my book, which you can order here!
I know most people set goals at the start of the new year but I'm inclined to set my goals at the start of summer. I think many teachers are as we have the long and lovely days to work toward accomplishing them. But how many summers have we set the same goals only to, well, not achieve them? It's so frustrating! Today, I'm talking about that very thing on my podcast. You can take a listen here or wherever you download podcasts.
I mention both of these books in my podcast so I thought I'd share. I recently finished The Four Agreements and I could read it over again, it's just so good. I did enjoy The 100-Day Goal Journal but definitely not for 100 days. It did help me change my thinking and work toward my goals.
And in case you need a little background music...here's that song I mentioned in my podcast. I don't often quote the Beebs but when I do...here you go.
Hey, y'all! This is the topic I'll be talking about at length on my podcast, Cassie Stephens. I mentioned in the podcast that I'd share the movie and books I referenced so here you go!
We also have spots available for the Art Teacherin' Extravaganza! So if you are thinking of signing up, now is the time. Feel free to send me an email at cassiart75@gmail.com if your school is in need of a PO. I can also send along info that just might help you sway your admin to pay for your spot.
The 2018 movie American Animals was one I really enjoyed...but it's a particular scene that resonated with me and got me thinking. If you've not seen this movie yet, you may want to check it out. It has a strong artist connection so I think you'll dig it.
These two books are the ones I draw quotes from in the podcast. I will say that Man's Search for Meaning was a very emotionally difficult read for the first half...so just beware. I just started The Four Agreements this weekend and I'm nearly finished. It's a fast and amazing read that I cannot recommend enough.
I have not finished this one yet...I hit the pause button on reading it as the author kept referencing Man's Search for Meaning. I decided to read that first and then I'll return to the 7 Habits. Since I mentioned it in the podcast, I thought I'd share here.
Thanks, y'all! I hope you enjoy the episode. I'd love to hear your thoughts. If you'd like to chat, feel free to drop me a line at cassieart75@gmail.com. I'm also taking questions to be answered in future episodes so if you have any, don't hesitate to throw them my way!
Wanna see me teaching painting to kindergarten? Well, here's a video. It covers everything I wish to share with my students on painting procedures and routines for their first painting adventure! It's from 2019. 
