texture magic.

The kinders are working on texture with the help of an illustration by Melanie Mikecz.

We talk about the main characters in Melanie's image, what type of animal they were, and what they can do that other animals can't. 

I then showed them an example of the project and talked about texture.

We drew our chameleons together. We talked about pupil placement and mouth expression. Then I broke out the texture plates and did a demo of the texture rubbing that would fill their lizards and leaves. That's when I got numerous "ooooh, that's magic!" and I  replied, "no kids, that's texture!"

ba da bing;)

Once the kids finished coloring and cutting their chameleons, leaves, and branches, I asked them to place their parts but not to glue them yet. I emphasized that they should place their parts on the paper (PPP) and then glue them on.

I love the variety in these, even though the drawing portion was directed. Easy tie-in to Eric Carle's Mixed Up Chameleon, too:)

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!