Where the Wild Things Are

I am so excited to be able to share the work of one of my co-workers! Her name is Jo Ann Hamer, known to her friends and colleagues as JoJo! 

JoJo is a middle school art teacher now, but used to be our Kindergarten and First grade Art teacher until our district decided to make some moves a few years ago. JoJo had such knack for working with our Kinders and First graders, she would get them to do work that I never imagined a child that age was capable of! When I asked her to be a guest writer for our blog, she was a nervous because she has never blogged before! I told her not to worry and to just think of it as if she were sharing with me on what she did with her kinder classes. So, when she agreed to write, I was super happy to get to share her talent with each and every one of you!

JoJo has decided to share one of her FAVORITE lesson plans for Kindergarten:

Where the Wild Things Are 

 

The Focus of this lesson: reading, imagination and painting process and brush care

Materials Needed:     Book: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

18 X 24 white or neutral construction paper 80# (heavy is better for tempera paint)

Black tempera paint (day 1)

Colors of tempera paint (day two and three) I use old frosting cups to hold paint because it will not tip over it is a cylinder, plus you can leave at the easel and cover it with the lid!

Brushes/ water cups at each easel/ hand wash buckets around the room with towels

Easels (optional but truly the BEST way for Kinder age)

Day 1:

 

Procedures:

Introduce the book and Ask children if they have ever seen this book before.

Read story, talk and keep the topic light regarding the wild things…

Notice in the book: The yellow eyes of the wild things.

·         Talk about their facial features and exaggerate…

• Ask children if they have ever seen this book before?

At the Easel you:

• Paint using black paint your Wild Thing
• As you paint talk about the shapes you are using, circle, triangles a smile line, nose holes, hair…
• Tell the students they will be only painting with black paint today and then let them paint their own Wild Thing
• Show them how to clean their brush in water cup at end of class.

Day 2

• On day two have students watch you paint with bright colors, your Wild Thing
•  Let them do the same with their art.

THEN...
(Day 2 or 3) 
Share and Reflect:

• Students can share their art                
• While they are sharing ask them:
• Tell us about your Wild Thing
• Does your wild thing have a name? 
• If you were to change anything on your painting, what would it be?

 

I hope you enjoyed this lesson on Where the Wild Things Are by JoJo.  She has so many wonderful Art ideas for Kinder and I plan on having her share them with you on my personal blog Kindergarten Hugs and also through Pre-K and K Sharing throughout the upcoming months! 

I have been trying to talk her into writing her own blog to share her talent and love for Art! Maybe all the love and support she gets from Pre-K and K Sharing will help her make that leap!

Carie is a kindergarten teacher from Illinois who writes on the 17th of each month. She shares her experiences and ideas from her classroom, writing about reading, writing, math, Art, and several other fun and exciting things!

Carie also writes her own blog: 

Kindergarten Hugs

Carie Ramirez

Painting with snow ... and other snowy fun!

By Laura Eldredge

If you are lucky enough to live somewhere with winter weather – you can bring the outdoor in for a little snow day fun! Painting with (and ON) snow is a fun way to let children explore concepts of color mixing and the scientific properties of snow.

First, we scooped up a small bucket of clean snow and brought it inside (if you scoop your snow before you are ready to use it, then you'll need to keep it in the freezer until you are ready). We put snow into small bowls for children to use while watercolor painting.

Instead of using cups of water -- children wet their paint brushes with the snow. We discussed what snow is made from (water) - and how as the snow gets warmer inside it will start to melt (properties of matter). Using the snow instead of water keeps the brushes from getting TOO wet, and makes the watercolor pictures more vibrant, as well.

Inevitably, as the children cleaned and wet their brushes on the snow, the snow started to turn colorful. So we explored some color mixing in the process. In the end, many children enjoyed painting the snow more than their pictures! So we brought out some bowls and scooped some snow for children to paint on individually.

Other SNOWY activities and art projects

If you search on “snow” in our website (using our Idea Search Tool) … you’ll find a lot of additional fun snowy activities (many requiring materials OTHER THAN snow!).

Such as "Tactile table pretend snow" -- using salt, sugar and glitter!
 

Or "Snow Paint" -- using water, salt, flour, paintbrush and imagination!
 

And "Snow Dough" -- salt, flour, vegetable oil, water and clear glitter!

 
PreK + K sharing SNOWY DAY roundup!

Want more snow-filled, fun and educational ideas?   Here are a couple of other wintery posts from our preK + K sharing blog:

• More snowy activities in preschool 
• Montessori-Inspired Winter Math Activities
• Winter Activities
• Wintertime Fun!

And more ideas can be found on PINTEREST!

Laura Eldredge is a teacher and curriculum coordinator at a NAEYC accredited early childhood program in Connecticut. She also co-founded the website The SEEDS Network, as a way to provide early childhood professionals with ideas and resources that support them in their quest to provide quality care and education to our youngest learners. She blogs at www.theseedsblog.com.

SUNSHINE ART!

It's Enrique here and thanks for stopping by to check out my blog.  I have the most wonderful relationships with so many great preschool and kinder classrooms.  I'm so fortunate to have the opportunity to work with so many lovely teachers, children and parents and the thanks they show fuels in such an authentic way!

If you're been reading my blogs, you'll notice that I have been spending a lot of time with the Sunnyside Head Start preschool classrooms.  It's a truly magical place, as are many of the centers in Tucson, Arizona.  

Welcome to one of those classrooms... 

THE SUNSHINE CLASSROOM!

As you can read below, back during the 2005 - 2006 school year, the children of this room chose their inspiration, their interest, there POV, if you will.  Their perspective and how they saw things is what the teachers so cleverly allowed to be the motivational aspect for the entire year.  The children chose...

THE SUN! 

One of the really exciting things about this approach is that the:

• TEACHERS ENGAGED THE CHILDREN using QUESTIONS.
• TEACHERS VALIDATED ALL THE CHILD RESPONSES.
• TEACHERS POSTED THE CHILD RESPONSES.

This approach says to the child, "your ideas matter."  When we feel we matter, we all bring such wonderful energy to whatever situation we are involved with.  Below you can read some of those responses.  Enjoy!!!

Additionally, teachers engaged the children with the opportunity to

"represent what they knew about the sun" in artistic ways.  

The children's knowledge of the sun grew over time from their prior knowledge and then building on that through discovery and dialogue.  Below is one example of a child's perspective on:

• WHAT THE SUN LOOKS LIKE
• WHAT THE SUN FEELS LIKE
• WHAT THE SUN DOES
• HOW THE SUN MAKES THEM FEEL

Enjoy this lovely piece of process-based Art!

What could YOU do with YOUR CHILDREN?  Perhaps you could try some of the following ideas which all build on critical thinking skills in loving ways by engaging the interest of the children.

• TAKE THE CHILDREN OUTSIDE AND ASK THEM WHAT THEY SEE?
• ASK THE CHILDREN WHY CERTAIN THINGS GROW?
• ASK WHAT DO PLANTS NEED TO GROW?

Once you discover the interest of a group of children or an individual child, expand on that interest by:

• ASKING THE CHILD WHAT THEY KNOW ABOUT THEIR INTEREST
• ASK CHILDREN AND PARENTS TO SHARE WHAT THEY KNOW WITH EACH OTHER
• AFTER CHILDREN HAVE SHARED WITH PARENTS, REVISIT WHAT THEY KNOW
• FIND WAYS FOR CHILDREN TO REPRESENT WHAT THEY KNOW WITH ART

If you wanted to, you would carry a like this on over a period of time, which can lead to very meaningful learning.  This also builds community by creating a sense of "who the class is."  Here is a photo of the garden at Sunnyside Head Start.  What a fantastic place for discovery to begin and continue!

I hope you've enjoyed this quick blog and that it's inspired you to look around at all you see and look for opportunities to connect your young ones to learning in ways which interest them deeply.  When you see a young child entranced with something, remember that you have found their "magnet!"  Once you've found this connection, it's up to all of us to find ways to use that in numerous ways to make learning a joyful experience!  TEACH and GUIDE ON!!!  

Many of these concepts and techniques can be found in my book "Living Like a Child."

Enrique

CHILI PEPPER ART!!

CREATING ART FROM WHAT CHILDREN KNOW 

AND EXPERIENCE

It's a blazing hot day in Tucson, Arizona.  You sit down to dinner and even though it's still in the 90's, many of us in the Southwest crave a bite of "Chile" with our food.  From the oldest to the youngest, it's part of our culture.  

In one of the preschool classrooms I have the great honor of working with, at Sunnyside Head Start, their brilliant teachers chose the topic of "Chiles"as a place to start a project.  Children brought their own knowledge of:

1) What is a Chile?

2) What does a Chile taste like?

3) What is the shape of a Chile?

4) What color is a Chile?

5) Are Chiles all the same?

The children in our part of the country bring a lot of prior knowledge about chiles.  This led to the creation of Artwork.  It led to:

THE CHILE PROJECT

One of the key areas this preschool center is fantastic at, is engaging parent involvement and having children and parents discuss things at home so that children then come back with more information to share with classmates and teachers.  Imagine all that can be learned.

In this case children learned that "chiles are fruit" that are a part of their culture and that there are "many types of chiles" used in their homes.  Their parents use them for:

1) Cooking
2) As a spicy condiment
3) Used in different dishes
4) Used in Candy

Chiles are also part of the garden at this center and teachers and children grow a variety of them together.

CHILE-INSPIRED ART!                                                                                                                        In the photo below, you can see preschool children creating Art from their "PRIOR KNOWLEDGE."  This makes the creating of the Art more meaningful to them and is a great place to connect children with improvising and exploring the use of different "perspectives".  

1) Can the Chile's be used to create shapes?
2) What kind of shapes can you create?

THE FINAL PRODUCT

What I really love about the piece of child-created Art below, in addition to it coming from the child's knowledge and culture, is that it's authentic to the child's perspective of Art.  Bravo Sunnyside!!!

THE PROCESS

How do you feel when someone displays or highlights your work in a positive light?  We all love it, don't we?  It's important to take the time to display children's artwork, but what makes the image below unique is that THEY DISPLAYED THE PROCESS with images and quotes (see final image below)!

Wow.... we all know the process is very important, but to be able to display the process is truly powerful for children, parents, and teachers.

I hope everyone has a great month of August.  I know I'm really looking forward to seeing my many little friends at many centers around the country and my many teacher friends as well!

See you amidst all the laughter and joy!

Enrique

P.S. Our website is under renovation, but you can still visit our old website at www.famefoundation.org.  For more information on what we do, check out the book Living Like a Child.

Creating Rainbows With Toy Cars

Hi this is Melissa from The Chocolate Muffin Tree. We have been having fun with rainbows....hope you enjoy this post!

Rainbows have been buzzing in the blogosphere the past few weeks and we have caught the bug!  We created Rainbows with toy cars this past week.  Just the name sounds FUN...doesn't it?  My daughter loved the idea of painting with cars right away.

To create your own rainbow with car tracks you'll need: 

toy cars

tempera paint in all the rainbow colors 

a plastic lid or paper plate for each color of paint

large paper (we used 12x18 size)

Before we started,  I reminded my daughter of the rainbow color order and she remembered this video from last year: Roy G. Biv.  You could bring the colors out in order if you want the finished rainbows to be correct....or not.  My daughter dipped the car in the paint a few times to get the red to spread across the paper.

As you can see she continued on really well.....Beautiful.

Here is the finished rainbow.  I think it looks AMAZING!  Now she wasn't done yet...

My daughter had a blast creating car tracks without making a rainbow too.  Actually she enjoyed this even more!  Her cars were battling each other  and there was all kinds of pretend play going on during this process focused painting.

She created at least 5 or 6 paintings with cars.  A HUGE success and pretty rainbow too.

Be sure to check out our Styrofoam Rainbow Prints that we recently did too.  More RAINBOW FUN!

Have you been creating rainbows with your children?

Melissa Jordan blogs over at The Chocolate Muffin Tree.   She is a former Elementary Art Teacher  who loves inspiring others with her ideas on her blog.  Many of these activities she does with her 5 year old daughter.