Kindergarten Art Kits - Descriptions

a year ago

Alaskan Animal Senses (Drama kit)

This drama lesson explores the basics of creative dramatic role-play and how different animals that live throughout Alaska use their senses to meet basic needs. By investigating animal activity through observation, imaginative movement and dramatic play, students will gain an understanding of the differences and similarities of animals in relationship to their environment, making connections to Alaskan ecology and biology. This lesson also provides an introduction to conventions of theatre as a performing art.

Alaska Animal Masks

Students explore the unique facial features of different animals. They are introduced to paper sculpting techniques and create a mask of a local Alaskan animal, adding 3-dimensional features.

Children Just Like Me

Each child draws themselves and a favorite place or thing. The pictures are colored with colored pencils, then cut out to make a community class mural or border.

Circles Everywhere

In this lesson, students discover circles in the world around us. They practice drawing and printing circles, finding that printing an object repetitively can produce interesting patterns and designs. This lesson teaches young children how to print objects, which can be used frequently for learning about shapes, patterns and numbers.

Clay Medallions and Counters

Students explore clay as a material. They create textures and patterns using common objects (provided in kit) and make a set of clay counters for the class to use for math games and a colorful (glazed) medallion for them to keep or give as a gift.

Color Critters

Students will listen to the story White Rabbit’s Color Book After some practice in mixing primary colored oil pastels in many combinations and discovering new colors, they will create a colorful critter from their practice sheet.

Drawing from Observation: Leaves

This is a foundational lesson in drawing from observation, getitng your students started with this way of seeing and recording. You will need to collect leaves for this lesson.

Drawing from Observation: Push and Pull

Use the power of play, observation and drawing to help students build more knowledge of the phenomena of "push" and "pull."

Eat Like a Bear

In this art lesson, children learn about the many foods a bear eats, spring, summer and fall. Children's artwork helps them become more aware of primary colors, practice printing wtih objects, draw from observation, and bring the bear together with it's food in a mixed media project.

Formline Babies

Students are introduced to Northwest Coast Formline Design and the “ovoid” shape though Tlingit artist, Crystal Worl’s delightful series of “Formline Babies.” In this early childhood lesson, students learn some Tlingit phrases, go on a scavenger hunt in the room, and learn by painting and drawing on Crystal’s Raven and Eagle designs.

photo of colorful student art with formline

Keep Rolling

A STEAM partner lesson for Ramps and Rolling Science kit. This kit comes with rolling trays for each child and multiple kinds of small balls that will make different patterns as they roll. The kit includes two art experiences, different kinds of balls different kinds of lines and also an activity for making "line stories" using a ping pong ball.

Learning to Paint our Ideas

Students collectively brainstorm their knowledge and ideas around a topic of the teachers choosing. They are taught painting techniques to help them paint clear and "easy to read" pictures that show their ideas on the topic. After introducing this painting technique through the kit, teachers can have students share their ideas through painting throughout the year on a variety of topics.

Love Those Anenomes

Students look at pictures of sea anemones and discuss radial design. They learn primary colors and then paint a large anemone with a wave-line background.

Marvelous Mittens

Students use mixed media to design a mitten for someone they know, making it both smart and useful as well as beautiful.

Me in the Mirror

Students draw a self portrait using oil pastels. The kit provides a mirror for each student to examine his or her face. They are encouraged to draw the colors and shapes of their unique features. Students look at prints of several portraits and explore the meaning of a “self-portrait.

Paint Color Mixing

Students use primary colors of tempera paint to mix and discover the magic of color mixing. They test their colors with other children in their table groups and their conversations are recorded on a poster created by the group.The Tlingit names for colors provide a foundation for students understanding of color and naming their own newly created colors.

Pezzettino

Students are inspired by Leo Lionni?s book, Pezzettino, which means small piece in Italian. Students cut and glue patterned paper to make a land or seascape.They stamp and print small geometric shapes to create a creature, and add Pezzettino to complete their art.

Primary Paint: Shapes, Letters and Numbers

Students learn beginning paintbrush technique and practice using two sizes of paintbrushes with primary color tempera cakes. The art of American artist, Jasper Johns offers inspiration as student practice painting using shapes, numbers and letters as the subject matter.

Rainbow Flower Garden

Students are inspired by Lois Ehlert’s book, Planting a Rainbow. They draw a flower from observation, coloring it with oil pastels. Color blending is introduced. Students graph their drawings on a color bar graph.

Raven Puppets

Students learn about the significance of Raven in the Tlingit culture and learn the shape “ovoid”. Students “build” a 3-D raven puppet, using common shapes such as rectangle, square, triangle and rhombus. They will use techniques of cutting and folding paper.

Sea Creatures with Ray Troll

Students create sea creatures in the style of Ray Troll. Oil pastels are used to draw a shape and color with pattern. Students add a patterned border design, name their creature, and view it with 3-D glasses.

Shape-ka-bobs

Students will learn about textures. They will go on a texture hunt in their room naming textures they find. Then they make rubbings from texture forms, cut them out, and put them on a stick to make a “Shape-ka-Bob.”

Sled Dog Portraits

Dog Mushing is a popular sport of the Arctic Winter Games. After looking at many artists pictures of sled dogs, students make their own dog portrait. They learn about the shape of a sled dog's head, the colors of the fur, and the special mask each one has. Construction paper, crayons and oil pastel are used to create each unique sled dog portrait.

The Snowy Day at School

Students relate geometric shapes to the shapes of their school in a paper collage, then use paint to practice “printing” snowflakes, “painting” snow on the building, and making tracks in the snow with a bit of color mixing.

The beloved book, “The Snowy Day,” is included for inspiration.

Solstice Sun Collage

Students are inspired by an Inuit Folktale, Raven Brings the Light. After identifying similarities in 4 posters of sun art, students create a paper sun collage with contrasting colors. Students incorporate pattern in the rays of the suns

Stories with Scissors

Children learn several common "cuts" with scissors, how to make a wavy line, how to cut a circle, a triangle and rectangles. They use these shapes to create and imagine settings for the "Going on a Bear Hunt" chant. Each child makes a three-page 'book" in which they play with small animal character pictures, making the animals go on a hunt through the pages (settings.)

Sunflowers

Students read book Camille and the Sunflowers, a story about Vincent Van Gogh, and learn of his love for painting sunflowers. Inspired by this, they paint a sunflower of their own.

photo of a student's painting of a sunflower

Tidepool Sculptures

Students learn the basic techniques of sculpting with modeling clay and use this medium to create a sculpture of a tidepool animal, using photos as a resource.

photo of clay sculptures of tidepool creatures

Weather Stories (drama)

Explore types of weather and appropriate responses while introducing the basics of acting through guided dramatic role-play. This lesson can be used independently or to compliment a larger unit about weather, making weather observations, or learning about how weather affects us. The kit provides opportunities for students to construct knowledge through movement, sound and imaginative play.

photo of a student-created picture of a tree

The Wind and Me

In this integrated art lesson, students practice painting and drawing while feeling and hearing the wind. They are encouraged to observe the wind's effects on themselves and the world around them. In the Tlingit language: óoxjaa: wind; t’aakú: our local, strong, gusty wind.

photo of a student's artwork of themselves in the wind

"Yaakw" Canoes

Students learn about traditional NWCoast Native canoes. Given the opportunity to look at authentic carved canoe models, children draw pictures of the canoes and add colored rubbings of formline design to enhance the finished drawing.

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2023-24 JSD Art Kit Database