Classroom Management for Kindergarteners, and 2nd Week Goodness

Kiddos beginning to paint their sketchbook covers

I am so excited about some of the stuff I'm doing this year.  Yes, I changed the way the classroom is set up; that's already made some differences in movement in the room.  I also am heavily enforcing the "get in the zone" mentality--listen to some quiet music, limit chatting, and find your space within the artwork you're doing.  So far, so good!

I am noticing, though,  that this  year the little kinders seem to have an even harder time keeping themselves together for a whole 45 minutes.  They aren't used to having to sit in one place for so long, and they are so very curious about everything.  They HAVE to make comment, they are so excited to be a part of such an interesting place!  But all those wonderful inquisitive parts of their learning brains mean that it's super-hard to get information to them, get them started on a project, and then follow directions to completion.  What to do?  How to get them quiet and still enough to listen and then make stuff?

QUIET CRITTERS.  All I can say is, AMAZING.  Cassie Stephens, art teacher extraordinaire, talked about these guys in one of her podcasts.  She  got it from one of the kindergarten teachers in her school.  She made some.  Worked like a charm.  Chill, quiet kinders, working like they were focused college students.  Wow!  So---I made some of my own.  I hit up the Michaels that is down the street from my school (thank you for the 20% teacher discount, love ya).  Six fluffy huge pompoms later, I was back at school hot gluing on googly eyes, pipe cleaner antennae, and foam feet.  I made enough Quiet Critters for each of my kinder tables (I have 8 tables in my room but only use 6 for the wee ones).  I couldn't wait to get them to my kiddos the next day.

WOW. That's all I can say.  It was exactly as Cassie described it.

Here's how it went, and how it continues to go:  

When I had given  instruction to my littles, I suddenly turned, hearing a sort of scratching coming from a white box on my front counter.

I peered inside and listened closely.  "Oh!" I cried, "They're awake!  The Quiet Critters want to meet you!"

I pulled one out and listened to it, up to my ear.  "This is Pablo!  He wants to go sit with the blue team!"  I brought the Quiet Critter out and began to explain that Quiet Critters love people, but they are very shy, and afraid of noise.  They love to come sit with my students. but only when they are very very quiet.  As I was telling this, you could have heard a pin drop.  Every kid was silently hoping that there would be a Quiet Critter coming to their table.  As I got to the blue table, I pointed out that they had been so quiet that Pablo  asked to go sit with them.  I asked the class if they felt they could earn a Quiet Critter, too.  Nodding heads.  Clasped hands.  Wishing little people.  I began pulling out one after the other, putting them up to my ear and listening to them tell me what table they wanted to go to.  The kids were rapt.  I reminded my little friends that any sound  would scare them and they would ask me to put them back in their home.

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Y'all, we were PAINTING.  But my classroom was completely silent through the whole thing. 😲They cleaned up silently.  😍 They folded their newspapers and tee shirts silently as I modeled how to do that, so they'd remember.  They got a piece of free draw paper to practice the lines they had learned.  I'm tellin' ya, it was NIRVANA as a kindergarten Art teacher.  😄

I'm never going back.  Cassie, thank you!!!  And y'all, try it.  It's amazing.  And wonderful.  And peaceful.  And yes, I did use it on a fifth grade class yesterday, and they were totally IN.  I don't think it's an all the time thing with the big kids, but oh---those littles.  And maybe, here and there, those big uns, too.  Yay for classroom management!

Fabulous Art with Fabulous Kids!

First Graders rocked the house with their shape self-portraits.  We looked at the Swiss artist Paul Klee and learned about his life...he was an art teacher, a poet, and a violinist!  Definitely a man of the Arts.  We looked at a variety of abstract and realistic artworks, and even played a game of identifying which works were abstract, and which were realistic.  We looked over Klee's work and decided he was quite abstract.  A discussion of lines, shapes, and artwork titles helped us understand what we were looking at.  Sometimes a title means everything. 


When we looked at "Head of a Man," we knew we were about to do something interesting.  Students were given a plastic bag full of tag board shapes, and had to make our self-portrait using only shapes.  It was such fun to see how everybody's work came out.  We first drew with pencil, then outlined them with marker, and then colored them with crayons that matched the color of the marker they used.  Students had lots of fun making their faces all kinds of colors. Some students used wild colors along with their wild shapes, so we had some very interesting self-portraits!  I really love this lesson.  Take a look at the results:

  

Back to School, Just Like All of Y'all....

Here we are again!  I loved stepping into Choice Based Art last year with my 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders; I'm going to do it again this year, although I'm tweaking some stuff.  In the next week or so I'll put up some results from last year (forgive me for not doing this at the appropriate time--you know how that burnout thing is, right?) so you can know how it turned out. Maybe as a teaser for this year--stay tuned!!

Here are the bulletin boards.  Compare to last year if you like--you'll notice they're once again teaching tools, same themes, but a little bit of new material.  My fave is the Elements of Art board--I dig the picture frames.  I'm sure I'm not the only Art teacher who gets in the zone making all the cool bulletin boards and posters.  While all my colleagues are stressing over room prep and class lists, I'm earbuds in, rocking out (sometimes dancing--don't judge), and making Art for my kids.  I'll post some pix of my room later.

The landscape, still life, and portrait boards are a little too stock for my wild-at-heart artistic self, but I want my kids to see work by Artists we are going to study.  Otherwise, I'd just fill the boards with my own fun work.   But you know how it is, we actually have to do our job and teach about all those folks.  I used some of the same works as last year...I really dig the diversity in the portrait set, though.  All those Artists are faves of mine.  Reppin' the ladies a bit, too.  I wonder if I need to go Guerilla Girls on my school this year.  Hmmm.

We Have Been Making, Building, Creating, Learning!

I can't say how  much excitement Choice-Based Art has been this year.  I am astounded at the work my students have done and how much learning and excitement letting them drive their own learning has changed my viewpoint on autonomy in the Art Room.  This has been an amazing year. 

 

Sketchbook Mapping

Every project began with research.  Students had to choose a theme or concept they wanted to convey; they had to think about something they cared about and how they might portray it in an artwork.

Once they had figured out what they wanted to accomplish in their artwork, they built a complex design  plan through mapping it in their sketchbook.  They began to research on the iPads and computers in the classroom; they could also go to the media center to use the computers there, or bring their own devices.  They had to come up with at least one supporting reference picture, but they could have up to three.  They uploaded them to a Google Drive account and I retrieved them and printed them, and they were added to the sketchbook maps.  Once they had their theme, materials list, explanation of their inspiration, reference picture, and layout, they followed up with a paragraph that explained what their underlying meaning was to their planned artwork, and how they planned to get the piece done.  Students could choose any materials I had available, or even bring in their own materials.  My office has been chock-full of extra stuff kids have brought in!  We had some discussion about their projects, and as I looked through their sketchbook maps, I made notes for them to remind them of what we had discussed for their projects as they began.

Here are some of the works in progress:

 

Many students are finished and it's time to reflect on their work.  I will post finished products in the next couple of weeks.  I'm so proud of all they have done.  They have more than risen to the challenge. 

Choice-Based Art and Sculpting Around the Room

I have been so excited to be getting my students ready for Choice-Based Art.  I began working with them on the Elements of Art, graduated to Drawing Around the  Room, and now we are Sculpting Around the Room.  I have to give a huge nod to Cynthia Gaub at Artechtivity.com--she has some amazing things she's doing with middle schoolers, and I'm modifying her Around the Room activities to fit my elementary kids.  They are loving it and I'm so grateful Cynthia rocked this before I tried it.  It's made my job a million times easier.  She even provides the handouts--go check out her website.  Thank you, Cynthia!


Sketchbook Covers

We began our school year working on the Elements of Art, and how to research on our iPads.  We took a "field trip" to the hall outside my room to study the Elements and  Principals bulletin boards, then headed to the media center to learn about safe searches, best practices in research, and effective websites for student inquiry.  Students chose the Element of Art they wanted to work on, researched images for inspiration, and then chose the medium they wanted to use to depict their Element.  Some students chose to illustrate more than one medium.  Afterward we did a quick gallery walk to see what everyone did (they were so amazed at each others' work!) and then they took a bit of time to reflect in writing what they had learned.  I have Art Standards  checklists for them to check off the date when they  meet a standard each quarter, so that was also part of the activity.

Then we turned to the studio introductions for Choice-Based Art.

 Drawing Around the Room
 

In preparation for beginning our Choice-Based Art Studios, we have some activities using various media; the kids are finding out how their art supplies behave.  Our first set of activities was Drawing Around the Room.  In Drawing Around the Room, students worked with 7 different drawing mediums:  drawing pencils, colored pencils, markers, oil pastels, chalk pastels, crayon, and charcoal.  Stations were set up at each table, and students rotated in groups of four to test each medium.  Cards with definitions of techniques were at each station, and students were required to write the definition before trying the medium.  Next, they worked with the medium and tried out various techniques.  They were encouraged to experiment and see how they liked each one.  Afterward, they reflected on their favorites and least favorites in a writing exercise. 

We are now in Sculpt Around the Room, which is the same sort of experiential activities, except I am not letting  them move around the room--I am bringing them the supplies and activities in big boxes--we lost too much time in transition with the drawing studios.  With Sculpt Around the Room, students have a full 45 minute class period to work on their sculptures. 


Boxes, supplies, so much stuff!  But so worth it.

Prepping for this was pretty big.  I was so glad to finally get it put together!  Cynthia had noted on her website that her kids didn't want the projects that weren't pretty--nobody wanted to take them home--so I made sure the paper projects, for example, were monochromatic with lots of size and  color variety so they could make it look really good. 

I totally stole a  beautiful paper sculpture poster idea from Sarah Brooks, once again right off of Pinterest.  Thank goodness for Pinterest.  Reinventing the wheel is over.  Isn't this gorgeous?!

Perfect for giving inspiration--and reminders that they already know so much of this already.

In each box are materials for a different sculpting project--wire sculpture, a paper village, a mobile, modeling clay monsters, and a relief sculpture using straws.  As the weeks are going by, the artworks are getting better and better.  They have the full class period to work, and they are becoming more and more confident as they continue to get new boxes of materials. 

Dr. Seuss Villages

Working on the Kinetic Hanging Sculptures (mobiles)

Examples of kinetic sculptures

Modeling clay monsters

Straw relief sculptures

Wire sculptures
 

 

Everybody is so engaged!

It's been so much fun to watch the kids get the hang of working together on projects--the group sculptures are getting better and better. And the individual sculptures are improving as the students get ideas and inspiration from one another.

It's only a few weeks before we are making Choice-Based Art in earnest.  We will have a Painting Around the Room set of activities, and then we are off.  Can't wait!  I will introduce sketchbook mapping for preparing to make an artwork that is a WOW piece--a Work of Wonder--on which students will work for several class periods, on their own steam, and without my telling them what to do.  I become a facilitator and mentor as they learn the Habits of Mind that help good artists create effective artworks.  This is so exciting.  As usual, stay tuned!