We’re working on integrating more cultural Vietnamese arts in to the art program. Usually these crafts are exhibited during Mid-Autumn Festival and Tet. However they aren’t regular topics in the art studio. I’ve been slowly introducing Hmong textiles to my Kindergarten students. It’s a slow process. We talk about geography and about fibers and how clothing is important. Students created t-shirts inspired by Hmong design. Now we are focusing on line and shape in the textiles.

I’m demonstrating a new line drawing lesson. This is the first of 3 line armatures I’m making for my students to observe and draw. The question is, what grade will I teach it to. I originally had my Pre-k classes in mind, but there is always that clash between academic drawing and childhood drawing. Do I think they are developmentally ready to draw something like this? Maybe. Is it too academic in scope? Maybe. Should I be challenging them? Yes. We’ll see how this goes.

I’m always inspired by constructivist works and they work so perfectly with kindergarten math standards. Let’s draw with shapes! Some students took advantage of stencils that were on hand, while some said no way and free hand drew their squares, diamonds, rectangles, circles and stars. They also had the liberty of using rulers in their drawings to create triangles. The students worked independently to compose their drawings while being conscious of identifying all the differe

This was a quarter 1 unit with the 1st grade. They had been studying light waves for science, so value and the color theory developing from it made sense to teach as extra enrichment. I also wanted to reintroduce color after working with just value for 2 weeks. This lesson involved learning to mix different levels of their chosen paint colors on a grid while incorporating black, white and gray. It was a challenge for them. Creating shade (various darks ) was the most challe

We finally christened the painting center in the art studio! It’s big enough to have 8 students paint simultateously. The kindergarten loved it and it was great to get them away from the tables and chairs so they have space to move.