Kindergarten: Yertle the Turtle

Kindergarten read Yertle the Turtle by Dr. Seuss, one of my favorite children's authors. Today, we based our pictures off of the images we saw in the book; which means lots and lots of turtles. But where do we start?

Well, there is nothing I like better than taking 'trash' and recycling it into something new. My scrap bin for old paintings and drawing was over-flowing with rejected masterpieces. These forgotten works are perfect for turtle shells and teaches the kids to look beyond what is there and change their thinking to what something can become.

Kindergarten: Tulip Day

The first day of Spring was the weekend before this lesson, so in celebration of the changing of seasons I taught my little ones their first origami lesson. In my classroom, I have a couple of kiddos that have additional needs and for them long directions can get confusing.
 To assist them with origami I created a 3D step-by-step chart showing them what comes next. Seeing, touching, and comparing helped them out immensely. They got to do most of it on their own without a teacher hovering over their shoulders. Even a few of the kids became confident enough to help out their table-neighbors when a step was forgotten. Yeah teamwork!

One of my student's schedule card.
 Images are attached with Velcro so events can be removed or/and replaced with others. Shout-out to our guidance-consular for putting this one together. It's been so helpful!

Kindergarten: Fish Swish

Fish Swish was created on a day that I needed a sub, so super easy LP. Students drew a line that overlapped 7 times and within these loops silly fish where found! I absolutely love all the extras they came up with for their backgrounds.

What a cute Sebastian crab on the left!
And it looks like that fish on the right loves to blow bubbles.

The artist on the left added a treasure chest. I wonder what is inside?
The fish family on the right are so colorful!

Kindergarten and 8th grade Buddies Part 2

Early this year our 8th graders learned how to draw the human face using correct proportions. They then gave their drawings to their Kindergarten buddies to complete. This project was influenced by the works Busymockingbird and her daughter. Busymockingbird's project started with the her creating the the faces and her 4 year old daughter added the body. Have you ever seen beaver people in space? It is so funny!

A few weeks later our buddies corroborated again; this time writing a story together to go along with the image they both helped to create. When they were finished the stories were bound together in a book.

Their collaborated stories turn out so funny! The mind of a Kindergartner and an 8th grader can create some pretty amazing stuff.

Kindergarten and 8th Grade Buddies: Collaboration Art

I can not take all the credit for this lesson. That credit goes to BusyMockingBird. She and her 4 year old daughter collaborate during their art project to create some that is truly unique and imaginative.
The mom starts the drawing by drawing a face, then her daughter takes over by drawing the body and background. Finally, BusyMockingBird adds extra color to complete the collaboration.

Here at SFA our 8th graders have been teamed up with a Kindergarten Buddy. Together they have made some awesome pieces of art.
Mrs. Heath, our middle school art teacher here at SFA, had her 8th graders practice drawing faces using proportions. Their faces were then turn over to my little ones for the finishing touches.
Kindergartners were not allowed to change their partners marks, but they could add around them. They have great imaginations! 8th grade decided that the pictures turned out way better when gave up some control and let things just be creative.
Later, 8th grade will be writing short stories about the images and reading them to back to their Kindergarten buddies. I know these stories will be amazing!