Kandinsky & Color

This was the third time I've taught Kandinsky in Under the Influence. The first time, we based our pictures on his triangle/diamond color study. The next time, we did his squares with concentric rings. We used oil pastels both times (I love the way they can blend to look like paint).

This time, I opened up the project by teaching mixed media—how the children could use many different materials in the same piece. They had water colors, oil pastels and paper (to tear) to choose from.

After looking at his paintings, I let them loose to interpret his use of color and shapes through their own eyes and in their own style. What I like so much is that each one is so unique, yet they all work so well together.

Something's Fishy

In PreK Art Lunch this week–everything was fishy! We read three books: Rainbow Fish to the Rescue, Swimmy and Fish is Fish. All three books were about solving problems through accepting others, and accepting oneself. 

So, of course, we made fish. The girls all chose to make "rainbow" fish, and they all did swimmingly!

Kisses for Mother's Day

This week in Storytime Art, I wanted to read “The Kissing Hand,” because I thought it would be perfect for Mother’s Day. But “The Kissing Hand” was checked out at the library. I did find “A Pocket Full of Kisses,” which seems to be the sequel, and also has a loving mother/child relationship. After that, we read “Sylvester and the Magic Pebble” and “Seeing Stars.” All three books had stars in them, and that was a unifying symbol we incorporated into the craft project.

I had little boxes for the girls to paint, and they added a small pebble from Sylvester, stars from all the books, and some Hershy’s Kisses inside from A Pocket Full of Kisses. The original idea was to be a Mother’s Day gift, but I think they may end up keeping them and just sharing a kiss or two!

Simplicity Rules

We learned about Keith Haring in Under the Influence of Art this week. On Tuesday, after talking about his style and looking at pictures of his work, I had two projects the kids could work on. One was a small picture, using what we learned about color, bold lines, simple shapes and symbols.

The other was a large-scale outline of their bodies, reflective of what we learned about Keith Haring’s large chalk drawings he did in the NY subways.

The students really got into these projects, and they worked until the last second, with some work left unfinished. So I decided to scale back for the Thursday class. Instead, we stuck with the smaller pictures, something I suggested might make a nice Mother’s Day gift. And, instead of doing a full-scale outline, we usd the large roll paper as ‘Keith Haring-inspired’ wrapping paper.