Kinder Socks

(Good gracious!  I found these socks pics and wrote this post.....AND just realized that I already posted this lesson not long ago.  Geeesh, oh well it really was a FUN lesson, so here it is again.)

Big Thanks to Laugh Paint Create and Mrs. Knight's Smartest Artists  for sharing their lessons inspired by the book, A Pair of Socks by Stuart J. Murphy & Illustrated by one of my favorites, Lois Ehlert.

My kinders loved the book and loved making their own "Matching Socks".  They also surprised me with how well they were able to make two identical socks with the same designs.

Robert Indiana Sign

This time I decided that students could choose their own 4 letters to highlight in their project inspired by the work of Robert Indiana.  

Students love learning about the iconic "LOVE" below.  The balance of the blue and green.  The slant of the "O".  The way the red letters are all connected to each other without any seams between them.  And the interesting relationship of the "L", "V", and "E" whereas they all touch the edge of the piece, yet the "O" doesn't touch the edge.  Some say the "O" is meant to represent fragility or instability as it looks like it can roll off the picture at any moment.  In opposition the other three letters are solidly placed.

The steps were:

1.  Make 4 big letters on 4 white pieces of paper that were 4.5"x4.5" each.

2.  Collage over the letters with magazine pictures.

3. Glue background construction paper color blocks on 9"x9" paper.

4.  Glue collaged letters onto color blocks.

These were done by beginning High School art students, but it's such a simple lesson younger kids could do it too.

Doodle Fish

Art Project Girl found a great page in an old art book that had a simple doodle drawing of fish, and I'm grateful she shared it here.  Simple always grabs my attention!

Step 1: Loopy doodle ( I told the students no more than 8 loops on the page....you know what would've happened without the limit.)

 

Step 2:  Add tails and face, then color.

Here are the "Doodle Fish" created by 4th graders.

Rock Fish

Rock Fish for 4th Graders!  

I added the exclamation because I'm so excited to finally have some lessons that can be special for particular grade levels.  After years of traveling to many different schools, I'm now at one school and can start some art project traditions at various grade levels.  Last year I chose the 4th grade class to make Rock Fish because the size of the class fit with the number of rocks I'd accumulated. So this year I decided to stick with 4th grade for the Rock Fish, and alas a new tradition has begun.

Big Thanks to MaryMaking for introducing my to this fabulous book, and inspiring this lesson with her salt dough fish lesson.

First we read, Only One You by Linda Kranz.
On paper, the students drew an oval for a rock, then drew a mouth, eye, fins, and decorations.
Then each student took a turn coming up to my box of rocks and choosing their rock.  (I had already painted one side of the rocks with white paint.)
The kids drew on the their rocks with black permanent marker.  Of course they wanted to use pencil first, but I didn't let them because of time constraints and I knew that some would make their decorations too small if they used pencil first.
Then students painted their fish with acrylic paints.
The following week, the students went over their black lines again with permanent marker to make the lines really stand out.
Lastly, I sprayed each one with clear gloss sealer.

Thanks NCCS 4th Graders!

Socks for Kinders

Thanks to Mrs. Knight's Smartest Artists for this lesson idea.
My kinders loved making their matching socks.
 After I read, A Pair of Socks to the students, we played a game of "Match the Socks".  I held a bag of socks and the students took turns pulling one sock out of the bag.  After they pulled their sock, they had to see if its match had already been pulled.  If it wasn't they put their sock down next to the other socks already pulled.  We really studied what made the socks identical which would mean it was a "match".


Students were given a white paper with 2 sock outlines drawn on it. 
They cut, colored, then glued the socks onto background. 
Then glued on title.

This is the book recommended by Mrs. Knight: