art room #8 first week kinder and 1st projects

When looking at Teach Kids Art for classroom rule ideas I saw she is using two books I was planing to using to start off the year and then one more brilliant idea. So here I go borrowing flat out again.

As I mentioned I want to do a self portraiture to start the year. I think I will do this with both K and 1st and then laminate them and make the the front of the kids art portfolio which I hope to turn into art books this year. But, gosh, kindergarten just finished the year with self portraiture. Oh well they have short memories. To shake it up and incorporate a story I am going to barrow the idea of reading Henry and the Purple Crayon and then have the kids draw themselves in black and things they like in purple. Here is the sample from Teach Kids Art

1. Using a black ("F") Sharpie, draw your self-portrait vertically on your portfolio. (You may want to demonstrate drawing a large circle about 1/4th of the way down from the top, so that students don't start their drawings too small.) Add lots of details! (We always do another self-portrait at the end of the year.... it's so fun to compare them and see the growth!)

2. Now use a purple crayon to draw pictures all around you of the things you want to learn about in Kindergarten.... letters, numbers, bugs and flowers, anything you can think of! Don't forget to draw a purple crayon in your hand!



Then she has a great idea for using the book The Dot which I wanted to read to encourage the kids to relax and not worry about things looking "right" here is her The Dot sample



My only worry with the dot is the kids mixing all the colors into a brown much. We will have to work on remembering to clean our brush between colors.

I think these dots if they turn out right will look amazing framed so this will make a great second project . I don't know if the kinder's will be ready to do this one the second week. Wait...kinder doesn't come back for an extra week. Ok this is good. I will start both kinder and first with the Harold project (1st will do it a week before kinder) and then the week that kinder is doing the Purple Crayon then 1st can be doing The Dot. I also think this would be a good one for those crazy second graders also till I know I can control them this year. I still want to use the book
ISH by the same man as THE Dot. I can do that with Kinder their second week and draw ISH animals or something.