Friday, November 18, 2016

Settings

Hello Parents!

A few weeks ago we learned about settings.  I used a thorough power point I found on the internet called "Story Settings: How to improve your writing!"  Even though its focus was on writing, I was still able to adjust it to apply to creating pictures.   It covered creating an atmosphere including things you can hear, touch, taste, and smell.  I couldn't load it to my blog, but if you are interested in it, leave a comment and I can send it to you.

We created a mountain setting with a lake and trees, then the students used their imaginations to fill in the rest.  Here are some pictures of their work:


 
 

 

 

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Shape People

Hello again Parents!

We've been busy for the last couple weeks in Mrs. Green's classroom.  We've covered shape people, drawing settings, and mixing colors, but this post will only cover the shape people.

Shape people:
Since I have two separate Kindergarten classes some of our lessons don't match up.  For instance the last lesson with the Frankensteins was specifically for Halloween for Class A, but when it was Class B's turn Halloween was over.  So instead of doing a monster, the kids got to choose between kids running, biking, skating, and figure skating.  They voted on the running person and we did a guided drawing together so they could see how basic geometric shapes can come together to make a person.  They chose the runner and here are some examples of their work:

 



 
I only showed them how to do the figure, but as you can see some of the kids took liberties with faces, hats, and even a belly button. :)    This lesson was a little difficult for the class, but looking back on it, I'm glad I gave them something challenging because everyone was engaged and trying to figure out something they had never done before.  I think in the future I can mix up really challenging lessons with easier ones to keep them on their toes.

One of the difficulties I encountered in this lesson was some kids pushed waaaaay too hard on their pencils.  It made it hard for them to erase their mistakes later and muddied up their picture.  I think the next time I do this lesson I will have them use mechanical pencils since the lead will snap if the kids push too hard which will give them immediate feed back to whether or not they are pushing too hard.   That way they will learn to draw nice and light until they have the line they want, then they can trace over it harder.