kinders and knuffle bunny

This is my first week working with kinders this year and they are a delightful bunch!

I'm sharing the book "Knuffle Bunny Too" by Mo Willems with them as an introduction to line and shape. The main characters, Trixie and Sonja, are in TK, so it's a perfect fit:) After reading the story to them, I ask them if they have a toy that they love like the main characters of the book do. I encourage them to picture it their head.

I then ask them to practice drawing that toy. I emphasize that these do not need to be perfect! These drawings are a chance for them to share something important to me and the rest of the class. If they finish their practice drawings early, I ask them to think of a setting- where do they play with that toy? As they are planning, I make sure to go around and talk to each artist, so they can verbally share what they are drawing.

My little artists then look at their practice drawing and refine it on a larger sheet of drawing paper. I tell them that it's okay if the drawing looks a bit different than the first one and I talk about adding more details to their drawings because their paper is bigger.

They then trace their pencil lines and add color to their drawings.

This has been a great opening activity- it allows them to share something personal and it gives me an idea where students are coming in at in terms of fine motor control. It's also a nice intro to the planning stage in art.

the kinders and leonardo.

I met with our little balls of energy (the kinders) for the first time this week and I introduced them to a little monster named Leonardo.

I started our time together by introducing myself and my classroom expectations, since it's the first time they have laid eyes on the silly man with gray hair and needing to be trimmed facial hair;)

After that we talked about what authors and illustrators do. I showed them the cover of Leonardo the Terrible Monster and identified Mo Willems as the author AND illustrator of the book. Mo is one of my all time favorite makers of kids' books.

I pointed out how Mo uses lines to make shapes- circles, triangles, and even monsters. We also talked about how an illustrator can show how a character is feeling by drawing a line for the mouth- it could be happy, sad, worried, etc. I told the students to be on the look out for these things as I read the book to them.

I have to say, I love reading to these classes, especially on our first time together. I find it is a great icebreaker. A lot of kiddo apprehension of me goes away as I get into the narration:)

Once we are done the book, I also point out how Mo made some things look smooth with line, but he made other parts look furry by wiggling his marker back and forth.

I have a predrawn circle on their paper and we draw the rest of Leonardo together. We identify shapes as we draw- rectangles for arms and legs, triangles for horns, etc. Students draw a mouth that reflects how their monster is feeling. When students trace their characters, I show them how they can wiggle their marker back and forth to make them look furry. They may choose to do this or not. They can color their characters as they wish.

There are definitely some interesting looking monsters  in this bunch. This lesson also gives me an opportunity to see who needs help with pencil grip, who needs help with hand pressure, and who can draw basic geometric shapes.

oh, pigeon

I just started working with our kinders today. I read a book to them and we did a drawing based on the main character.

Before I write about that lesson though, I need to share the last lesson I did with last year's littlest boys and girls.

It was simple, but some of the work the kids turned in was hilarious. I love Mo Willems. I LOVE his books. They are a reading staple at the Masse-Brown household. In fact, the first book my little guy read all by himself was a Piggie and Elephant book:) I digress though...

I read a couple of the Pigeon books to the kinder classes at the end of the year and students did a drawing of the pigeon and wrote a sentence to go along with it.

We looked at how Mo drew the different parts of the pigeon and identified shapes like circles, rectangles, and triangles. We also looked at how Mo made pigeon's legs in different scenes. The bird was running, sitting, walking, or standing throughout the books.

We drew out our birds together, added a speech bubble, and wrote the beginning of our sentence together (Don't let the pigeon...). I called on kids before we completed the sentence to verbally finish the sentence, so they could model for each other. Students then wrote what they didn't want the pigeon doing in their picture.

Students then could add details that gave the viewer a visual of what the pigeon wasn't supposed to do, and we added a ground line as well.

Students then traced the outlines and colored the image. 

Pretty straightforward, but it was a fun way to wrap up the year with them:)

Hey Mo- thanks for inspiring young (and older) readers and artists with your work!