Friday, June 5, 2015

First Unit of the Year for Kindergarten

I am switching to Middle School next year and am passing my lessons down to the new primary school teacher for her to use (or not use) so I thought since I am writing them up I should put them on the blog. I'll be adding them one at a time or a unit at a time.

This is the 1st unit I do with with kindergarten, so it is pretty simple at first. The goal is to introduce them to the vocabulary they will need to draw: describing and drawing lines and shapes. We have a large ESL population so it is especially important to establish common words for the art room.


The first project is lines: straight, slanted, curved, wavy, loopy, zig-zag. This is a common project. We start out the day with reading Lines That Wiggle by Candace Whitman. We then draw in crayon lines across the page. This is a guided lesson and all the kids have to make each type of line, but not in the same spot. The next part is describing what a shape is: a line that closes on itself. We then paint inside the shapes with watercolor. Might as well get the paint out for the first project right?! 




The second lesson in the unit we learn about geometric shapes that have names. I show them Kandinsky's Circles and how there is one shape inside the other. We get out the tempera and paint shapes inside of shapes. I also allow them to add lines and dots in between.  It is such a simple project but they turn out really pretty. Just don't give them all the colors of paint! This is still the first month of school and for many the very first time they have gotten to use messy tempera paint! 


This is the final picture of the unit. The other two projects are very simple and a way to introduce vocabulary needed for this drawing. I explain that we are going to draw a pig (from If You Give A Pig a Pancake) using the lines and shapes we have learned. We use circles, triangles, curved lines, straight lines, and dots. Every time I do this so early in the year for a kindergartner, I am amazed at how well they do! They also enjoy making different foods for their piggy to eat! 



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