Wednesday, November 9, 2011

we're going to the zoo, how about you?

The kindergarten students rotated back to me this week and we focused on cutting and gluing to make a collage. we also used overlapping to create a sense of 3d space in our collages.

I shared the work of Melanie Mikecz with them. Melanie's style is perfect for our little ones. Her characters and compositions are deceptively simple. She has a playful sense of color and body proportion throughout her images.


We looked at a number of animal illustrations on her website and identified the different animals as we went through them. I also pointed out places where Melanie used overlapping to show that some shapes were in front of others. Very simple, yet important concept for the kinders to gain an understanding of in art and nature as they develop their spatial skills.


The lesson was pretty direct. Students did have choices as to where certain elements would be placed and what kinds of colors or shapes they would use to create patterns in their designs. By and large, the students did a great job cutting out a variety of shapes. They were rock stars with rectangles and squares. We will continue to practice cutting out shapes with curves throughout the year. Once they get familiar with turning the paper (and not their scissors) those shapes will be so much easier for them to make consistently. It's always "interesting" to see students turning the scissors around to their bodies to get around that circle shape:)

Thanks for allowing us to go on a field trip without leaving the art room, Melanie!







2 comments:

  1. I have that hippo pinned and on the back burner for a lesson too! I'm sure the kids loved this lesson. Very cute and perfect for scissor skills!

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  2. send me a link when you do your lesson. i'd love to check it out!

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