Hello! My name is Cindy Feeney and I am the author of a very new blog called LOVE THOSE KINDERS. I am so honored to be a guest blogger on Crystal’s wonderful and FUN blog! Thank you Crystal!
I am in my 17th year of teaching kindergarten! I can’t believe it myself – time has flown and so many things have changed since I began 17 years ago! When I first started we were still teaching colors and counting to 20. Now we are teaching color WORDS and counting beyond 100! Our students are writing stories and putting letters together to form words. Most of us teach thematically and this was just starting to emerge as a favored way to teach 17 years ago.
One thing that I love to do is to incorporate drawing, cutting, gluing, and writing into every thematic subject that I can! I truly believe that when children illustrate a book, create a paper Mache animal, or use construction paper and glue to create, they take a dynamic role in their learning adventure. They retain the knowledge longer because they become an active participant in their educational journey. I love for my students to illustrate books that are written in words in which they can read or to write about a project that they created. I am not really a teacher who gives my students patterns and templates in which to trace. I know there are some projects that need a template, but for most activities, I prefer to give directions and then let my students fly with them. Do I get some pretty diverse projects? Absolutely! But that is what makes their art delightful to me!
Obviously my students do not start the year being able to create the projects they do now! As with any beginning of the year activity, steps are taken in increments and learned slowly. I start with teacher-directed lessons and then once they get the hang of how it is done, I let them go and usually what they come up with is SO MUCH better than what I could do! I am NOT an artist! I struggled with drawing and painting all through school – just like most of us! But once I started observing the world through different eyes, I realized that just knowing a few basic shapes or strokes can help us to create almost anything!
At the beginning of the year, we do a shape search. We simply attach paper to a clipboard; walk outside, and start sketching! It is so amazing to see what children can see! Their observation skills are so much more attuned to visual cues than mine and they have taught ME to see shapes I didn’t realize were there!
From the beginning lesson, I ask my students to add some words to their picture. Even if is only the beginning sound of the word prefaced with a high frequency word such as “the or a”; it is the start of their writing journey. The drawing/cutting techniques that I use with my students help them with their handwriting, too! Once they can take control of their pencil or scissors to create a picture, they have more confidence in their ability to write a letter, a word, or even a sentence. The end of the school year astounds me by what they can do!
There are SO MANY skills involved in drawing and cutting techniques! Children must be able to sequence to know what they should create first, then second, then third, and so on. They must be able to have control of their pencil and scissors and know the purpose of glue. This is fine motor practice. They must be able to look for sizes and shapes. This is math practice. When children are asked to illustrate a book, they are learning to recognize the differences between author and illustrator. They are identifying the front cover, title page, and back page of a book. They are describing their illustrations and the text in which they appear. They are blending and segmenting words. They are recognizing proper punctuation! Whew! Don’t let anyone ever tell you that skills are not being learned when children are illustrating their books or creating paper projects!
Here are a few pictures of some of the fun projects that my students have done this year!
Here are some examples of the “How to Draw” illustrations I give my students to help them follow steps to draw or cut.
If you would like to see more ideas, hop on over to my blog! And I thank Crystal once again for allowing me to be her guest blogger! Have a great week!
http://lovethosekinders-kinderkay.blogspot.com/
Crystal says
Cindy, I LOVED your pictures! I so wish I had more time to do art in my class. I feel like kindergarten is the old second grade and we have to work harder to make it FUN. After all, our kiddos are only five. Bless their little hearts. We work them! I love your ideas. Thanks for doing a guest post.
<>< Crystal
Kinderkay says
Thank YOU Crystal for allowing me to be a part of your blog this week! Yes, kindergarten is becoming too much hard work for our little ones! That is why I try to find a common core standard to justify the projects that my students do – not always easy, that's for sure!
Christina says
I truly love your blog and keep coming back to see what you have! I have awarded you the Lovely Blog award! Come on over to see what it's about! Thanks for all you do, you are one AMAZINGLY creative teacher!
seabearskindergarten
Ms. Kerri's Krazy Kindergarten says
Cindy. thanks for sharing. This has been on my mind for the past few weeks. I had recently read something where someone was talking about not doing art projects because it wasn't important. As we were doing our Dr. Seuss activities, I kept thinking about this statement and then all the listening and following directions that they were doing with our projects. We can't let art get over looked in Kindergarten. It's so important. Thanks again.
Zeynep Erdal says
Thank you so much for this great site! I preschool teacher. I have a blog related to the pre-school activities. Will be very happy if you visit.
http://birdunyazeynep.blogspot.com/
I'II be very happy if you follow me.
Kinder Learning Garden says
We love your blog and want to give you this award!
http://kinderlearninggarden.blogspot.com/2012/03/wow-blog-award.html
Here is your award button:
http://www.teachingblogaddict.com/2011/05/top-10.html
Thanks for all that you do!
Joanne & Suzanne
Kinder Learning Garden
Kinder Learning Garden says
We love your blog and wanted to give you this award!
http://kinderlearninggarden.blogspot.com/2012/03/wow-blog-award.html
Here is your award button:
http://www.teachingblogaddict.com/2011/05/top-10.html
Thanks for all that you do!
Joanne & Suzanne
Kinder Learning Garden