Mouse Paint

Mouse Paint by, Ellen Stoll Walsh, is a classic amongst primary and art teachers to help introduce the magic of color mixing.  Students learn the primary colors; red, yellow, and blue, are responsible for making the secondary colors by following some mischievous mice who make puddles and dance their way to making green, orange and purple.  The students love Mouse Paint because afterwards I let them make their own puddles and let the magic of color mixing happen before their eyes.

On day one, I have the students break into centers.  My first group of tables begin by coloring in a template of the three mice with crayons using the primary colors.  The other tables are my puddle makers.  In small groups they receive an 18" x 12" paper folded into thirds and get to mix puddles into the secondary colors.

On day two, students then took their paintings and added water to their puddles to activate the dried paint and fill in the white space with a liter tint of color.  This was a great opportunity to talk about value and have the students see how the same color can be perceived in lighter or darker tones.

Students then glued the mice down and added a border for the finishing touch.  

Great job kindergarteners!!!

Cornucopias

Cornucopias, to me, are the perfect fall symbol.  They incorporate fall harvest, feasts, and giving thanks all wrapped up in one.  In order to create the woven basket feel of the cornucopia, I had students work with cardboard.  They drew their cornucopias first onto a rectangular piece then cut out the shape and peeled back the outer layer of the cardboard to showcase the ribbed interior.  This really adds texture and gives that basket look to their artwork.

Upon finishing the basket step, students then glued their cornucopias to their paper and began stamping.  They use various fruits to create a balanced composition of fruit sprawling from their cornucopias.

Lastly, students made lines across their paper for a quick thanksgiving poem to be added to the background.  Students were asked to write a list things that they are thankful for.  I asked for a list of twenty.  These words were then copied in their best handwriting across their pictures.  The final results are stunning!

Fall Trees

Kindergarten students are working hard on these crayon resist and stamped trees paintings.  They explored using crayons a different way by making rubbings for the ground and tree trunk.  Then, they did a crayon resist wash for the sky.    

On day two, we worked on the fall leaves by stamping yellow, orange, and red leaves into the tree using sponge pieces.