Kindergarteners have been introduced to the artist Claude Monet. We read a book together called, "The Magical Garden of Claude Monet" by Laurence Anholt. In this story, a girl named Julie stumbles upon Claude Monet's magical garden and gets to visit some of the beautiful places that Claude Monet uses as inspiration. Included in the book are real images of Monet's paintings. First the students were lead in a discussion about the book. We spoke about what it looks like Monet's paintings are depicted of, what colors they see and what kind of brushstrokes he used. It was brought to their attention to keep an eye on the "Japanese Bridge" by Monet, displayed on one of the pages in the book. Students were then given a 12"x18" piece of white drawing paper in which they were given a guided drawing of a bridge. They completed the bridge in pencil and then given the option to color in their bridge in a color of their liking using oil pastels. (Let's be honest, it's their artwork, NOT Monet's!) After this is complete, the students will paint with water colors, the top portion of their paper in greens and yellows for trees and bushes and underneath they will paint blues and greens for the water. The students will understand the importance of a brushstroke rather than just trying to fill the page with color. To finalize their projects, they will crumple pieces of tissue paper to create the lily pads that are floating in the water. 

Learning Objectives: Art History-Claude Monet, Techniques in water colors, guided listening, fine motor skills

ART WORDS:
Brushstrokes: the stroke of a brush or an individual action that contributes to an overall effect of an artwork.

Fine motor skills are an extremely important part for Kindergartners. This lesson promotes the use and practice of fine motor skills using scissors to cut out their very own drawn shapes.  To begin we read the book "Shape Space" by Cathryn Falwell. The story is about a girl who opens a box full of different shapes and creates different images using those shapes. She built a friend, an outfit and a city before having to put back all the shapes into a box. During a guided drawing, the students drew with a pencil shapes such as squares, rectangles, triangles, circles, and ovals. ( a few of each) Then the students were given crayons and markers to color in those shapes. We discussed the proper way to color in a shape in solid color, no "spaghetti lines"! After the shapes were colored in, students were given a demonstration on the correct use and holding of a scissor. We cut a circle together for practice before tackling the shapes they drew. They then started to cut out their shapes from the outside of the paper into the middle and placed all their shapes into an envelope. We will then pour out our shapes and move them around on a piece of construction paper to create a collage. They are not being told what to create with these shapes, I really wanted to see what they can come up with. They were given some ideas like a robot, a city or a person. After they mapped out their design, they glued their shapes down. Finally, they were given markers and crayons to add any additional details they would like by drawing them on their shapes or backgrounds. 

Learning Objectives: Fine Motor Skills, Shapes, Collaging, cutting and pasting, literacy integration, listening to guided instruction. 

ART WORDS:
Collage: cutting and pasting images to create an artwork.