Kindergarten: Cardinals

Way to go kindergarten! For this project, we had a nice time creating a winter scene with birch trees and cardinals.

As you may know from years past, I love both. Actually, I have to keep track of when we do birch landscapes so as not to repeat the theme. Traditionally we do cardinals in grade 2 and I've done birch landscapes in 1st and 4th grades. 

This lesson was relatively simple and I owe thanks to Pinterest for the idea of these simple shape cardinals. 

After creating the backgrounds, we identified circles, semi-circles and triangles. My little artists cut and combined shapes to create their birds and then glued them down. 

Snowflakes were added with Q-tips and white paint with mixing medium. Hopefully you stop by the school to see these beauties in the hallway!

Kindergarten: Trout Paintings

One of the coolest new things about our school year is the addition of an aquarium that has trout! The school received the trout eggs earlier this fall and we've been watching them grow. In the spring, the trout will be released into a river. Everyday, the kids go down and check the pH balance of the tank and make sure the trout are doing well. There have been some bumps on the road but I find it really interesting. 

Kindergarten created a new breed of trout...a more colorful version in art last month. They began by drawing a simple outline of a fish and added the fins. Oil pastels created the habitat for a nice underwater environment. Then they used my fav liquid water colors for the background and tempera cakes for the fish. White tempera bubbles were tapped into the composition. I'm quite proud of the kindergarteners and the hallway display is fun to look at.

Here are a few close-ups of our colorful trout.

Kindergarten just finished their first winter inspired project- I'll post it soon. 

OXOX,

Mrs Johnson