Whistle While You Walk

For years now elementary art teachers have been teaching line to all their students. In Kindergarten we start with that infamous (and often misquoted) quote by Paul Klee, "A line is a dot that went for a walk." Well, I have been "walking" lines with Kinders for years and this year I was excited to run across this idea on Pinterest. What a fun way to teach the basics of line but at the same time turn it into a project that looks great and incorporates technology too!

Here is a step by step of how we did it:

Students practiced the different kinds of lines they learned from our Line PowerPoint on the Promethean Board. They love using the interactive white board! They also practiced drawing lines in their sketchbooks.

While that was going on we took digital photographs of students making their best whistling faces! Those were then printed, cut out, and glued to their white paper.

 

Students completed their projects by adding their whistling lines! We spent time talking about how sound "looks" and had a lot of fun drawing our own special tunes!

The Dot

 

Not sure what to do with your Kindergartners the 1st week of art....what about making a dot!?!?!  "The Dot" by Peter H. Reynolds is one of my favorittes. I read it to all K classes and every student made their own special dot framed in "swirly gold" just like in our story.  Each dot is so unique, just like my new students! I am excited for how the school year has begun. Stay tuned!

a little happy

One of the things I love about my school the most is the permanent art that we have on display here. Our cow now lives in the outdoor classroom garden. He makes me happy every time I see him! When I pause to think about permanent works that I have created with my students lots of fun memories come to mind.  Have you created any permanent pieces at your school? Share the links in comments - we would love to see. Here are a few of mine below:

Recycled bottle Chihuly sculpture

Keith Haring wood sculptures

Domino Mona Lisa (I need a better pic of this!)

 Stuart Davis Installations

Wordle Wall

Welcome back! It is hard to imagine that it is already the 2013-2014 school year. I am excited to be back and I am recommitting myself to the blog this year. When I logged on and realized my last post was in November I was shocked. We did so many great things last year in "The Crayon Lab"! Reflecting back, I know exactly why I stopped blogging, and hopefully this year will be different. 

There is a lot of newness here this year. I am trying to embrace it with excitement, but it's a challenge. One thing that has not changed is my love of technology. This years word wall is a "wordle" wall! Do you know Wordle? If you don't you need to check it out. It is a fun and easy way to create a word cloud. I use them in my PPTS, handouts, and projects!