Monday, February 15, 2016

Jasper Johns Inspired Alphabet with Kinder

I am wrapping up this kinder lesson inspired by Jasper Johns.  Watercolor resist is always a hit with kinder and with this lesson, we got the added benefit of practicing our letters.  
It was great hearing them sing the alphabet to remember what was next.  While a good amount have their alphabet down, some really needed the practice.  It  is one thing to sing the alphabet but remembering the order as they were writing was another.
This was also a great project to practice filling space, over and over and over again.
When we are doing projects like these, I want their crayon to have a nice thick coat.  So, we talk about using our art muscles.  I often go around the art room to see who has the biggest muscles (crayon pressed really hard).  Talk about a good motivator, especially those competitive boys.
I love how some naturally wanted to paint their boxes in with a different color, they probably felt like that is what they were supposed to do.  While others experimented a bit more.  Some students started off painting in the rectangles and abandoned that thought once they saw that they were allowed to just paint as they pleased.
This was one of my favorite lessons for kinder so far this year.

5 comments:

  1. Hi, This is great. Did you give them a sheet with the letters already penciled in, and the grids pencilled in? Thanks And what size and type of paper is this?

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  2. Hi, This is great. Did you give them a sheet with the letters already penciled in, and the grids pencilled in? Thanks And what size and type of paper is this?

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    1. Hi Andrea. I made the grids for the kids, but let them fill in the letters. We started these in January, so the kids were all familiar with capital letters by then. I had just a few kids that needed help remembering a letter or two. I just did hand over hand with them.

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  3. Thanks Shelly. What size and type of paper is this? Also, what does "hand over hand" mean? thanks. I'll do this with first graders.

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    1. It is a heavy sulphate paper. It was cut at 12.5 by 8.5". Hand over hand just means they grip the pencil, then I put my hand over theirs to guide the movements.

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