Guatemalan Worry Dolls

 

Guatemalans put worry dolls under the pillows of children to take their worrys away.  Kindergartners spoke about their own personal worries and made worry dolls.  We talked about whether or not worry dolls really work or not when it comes to taking away worries.  Some of them believed they would work for them!!!  So cute.  I glued the craft sticks together for them using Elmers glue-all.  They had to wrap in yarn and add the head.

Kinder Molas

We explore the art of the Kuna Indians in a few different grade levels.  Although the authentic process of making a Mola is quite complex, there is nothing wrong with simplifying the assignment to meet certain objectives.  Here, the objective was cutting a symmetrical shape and using line repetition to add detail.  

More Mexican Suns

This mixed media art project was an extention of our exploration of Latin suns.  Here, we examined the art of the Huichol Indians from Mexico, how create entire artworks out of yarn!.  The kinders loved the tactile element of working with the yarn.  Overall, a very hands-on activity!

Mexican Suns

Kindergarten is studying art around the world.  Here, they examined the symbol of the sun in Latin art and made our own clay suns.  We painted them with tempera paint.  They started by rolling a piece of clay into a sphere, then flattening it into a pancake.  They cut out rectangles around the circle to create the rays.  

Giraffes

Here is more kinder art from our art of Africa unit.  I love using shapes to help teach the students how to draw and construct animals.  Here, they learned about giraffes and used only rectangles to build its shape and form..

Homemade instruments!

While studying the art of Africa, Kindergarteners made these instruments inspired by the sounds of the African Shekere.  We covered paper towel rolls (that I had been hoarding for way too long) with construction paper that we had colored.  Inside, we put rice and beads and sealed both ends with packaging tape.  The starch from the rice coated the sticky ends from the packaging tape!

Kindergarten: Where we are in place and time

Kinders just began a unit about art around the world.  Each week, we explore art from a particular country.  This week, it was Japan.  Here, we examined Koi fish in Japanese art.  We used simple shapes like ovals and triangles to draw our own fish and colored them with colored pencils.