ashcanworks: December 2017

Kindergarten has been working really really hard all year learning about lines. We know different types of lines, we know how to draw those lines (those spirals are tricky!). We can turn those lines into parts of a landscape (zig-zag mountains, curvy hills, dotted roads, you name it!), we can even use lines to make a whole bunch of funky patterns! Whew! That's a lot of stuff!

To add to what we know about lines we learned that when you overlap them they make shapes. Yep. We can overlap lines to make shapes. Ever played tic-tac-toe? That's a shape in the middle of that hashtag board you drew.

We learned about an artist famous for overlapping lines to make shapes: Mondrian. Take a minute to check out his work if you aren't familiar with it. Kindergarten felt pretty confident that they could overlap lines too, so we thought we'd try this out!

We viewed and discussed Mondrian works, chatting about how big and small some of his shapes were. Then we played Line Simon Says! Everyone pushed in their chairs, stood behind them, made sure they had room to move a bit, and then we were ready to roll!

For vertical lines we stretched waaaaaay up, reaching our hands as high as we could. We even stood on tippy toes! Those lines were tall y'all! Horizontal lines were arms stretched straight out on both sides. Diagonal lines were tilted to each side. It helps to make airplane noises when you're tilting, of course. We're especially good at those diagonals.

After all those stretches, we were ready to get started on our Gingerbread Houses!

Students used pieces of cardboard dipped in white tempera paint to print lines of various sizes on their brown construction paper.

I projected examples of gingerbread houses so they could look at a variety of features while designing their own, taking their favorite parts of things we discussed and trying it out.

We used directional lines and overlapping lines to be gingerbread house architects!

The next time we had art together our pictures were dry and we were so proud of the work we did! After reviewing our directional lines with some Line Simon Says we set to work exploring a variety of textures to embellish our gingerbread houses! THIS WAS SO EXCITING!

While students worked I projected examples of actual gingerbread houses so they could see parts that typically have candies on them. After a quick demo on how to use glue, they were ready to dive in!

Students showed their friends awesome sequins they found, they talked about colors and textures they liked. So many giggles, smiles, squeals of delight!