Kindergarten Line Monsters

 

IMG_5724Kindergarteners at Georgetown have been busy learning about lines in the art room. After reading the book, Lines that Wiggle, by Candace Whitman, they explored all different kinds of lines. They began by drawing lines in the air with their imaginary pencils, then they painted them on paper with black tempera paint. When those lines dried they used watercolor paints to paint color between their lines. The final step was to cut them to look like monsters by adding eyes, (or an eye), mouths, teeth, and other things to make their monsters unique. The Kindergarten artists had so much fun creating their monsters and they are proud to display them in the halls at Georgetown!

This was a great first lesson for Kindergarten. It took a few sessions, but we were able to learn many first skills in the art room. We learned how to use scissors properly by holding our thumbs up and moving the paper, not the scissors. We learned painting correctly by treating the paintbrush like a ballerina and tiptoeing in our paint and dancing across our paper. We also learned how to properly use a glue stick by making the glue peek over the edge and not pop over the edge. Best of all, we were able to learn the routine of painting and cleaning up paint in the art room by starting simple with just one color.

 

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12 thoughts on “Kindergarten Line Monsters

  1. LOVE this project and will be trying it out soon! Two question:
    1) did they do the black paint one week and then the colored paint the second week?

    2) I am intrigued by your large placemats underneath their work. What are those? Just large paper?

  2. Hi Erin – yes to question 1 – the first class was all about line and the kids painted lines on tagboard with black tempera. They painted between the lines with watercolor for the second session, and during the last class they cut the paper and added details to create their line monsters. And question 2…the placemats are such a lifesaver in my room! They are just laminated pieces of 18×24 drawing paper. The beauty of these is that the whole mat and art piece can be carried together to the drying rack and slid on, instead of trying to carry and load a wet drippy painting on the rack. The mats also keep a lot of the paint mess off the tables – less clean up! When we first started using the mats, I thought the paint splattered background on the mats would be distracting to the kids…but they don’t even notice it when they are working.

  3. Hi Danelle – we flipped the paper over and the kids drew their monsters REALLY REALLY large on the back of the paper and then cut them out along their pencil lines…and flipped them back over to see our line monsters!

  4. Hi! Absolutely love this project. Just read the book and working on lines. Can’t wait to try it and it falls perfectly with Halloween. Can you please tell me the size of the white paper you used and how many different lines did you advise them to draw. Also, was there a certain amount of space to leave between the lines?
    Thanks,
    Darlene

  5. Thanks, Darlene! We used 12×18 heavy tagboard. Their goal was to make 5 or more different kinds of lines; I made a laminated copy for each table of line ideas – squiggles, zig zags, etc. so they could choose the lines to make, and encouraged the kiddos to make up their own line ideas. No direction on the spacing – just wherever the lines went when they painted. I did tell the kids to try to make their lines go all the way across the page and touch each edge of the paper. Have fun!

  6. I made these with my kindergartners after reading your blog, and they turned out amazing!! Thanks for sharing your ideas. My district doesn’t offer art so it’s all on me to provide my kinders with art projects and ways to show their creativity. Your blog has a lot of really great ideas! Thanks again!

  7. Aww…and big thanks to YOU for taking the time to let your kinders create! They need that creative time even more in our world of devices and technology. 🙂

  8. I love this project!! I am planning to do it in my art class, but I was wondering what you did for the eyes and the teeth? did you have them cut those out or have the pre-cut? Would love to know! Thanks so much!

  9. Hi Alex – the white eyes were pre-traced with a marker and the kids cut them out themselves. The black centers were die-cut circles. The black mouths and teeth were cut by the kids from paper scraps and bits. Have fun!

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