Line Song and Dance

I had this crazy idea that I should totally make a dance and song that would go into my line unit for my kindergarteners and First graders, but I couldn't come up with anything.

Low and behold, the power of shopping strikes again. I was on my way home from a productive day of clothes shopping and the words came to me... SOOOOO. Here it is.

This is basically sung to the farmer in the dell, but as a Chorus.

Blue is the teacher and Black are student lines.

When they sing the lines are everywhere they should point at a line they see.

 Horizontal Line movement is to hold your arms out at your sides.

For Vertical Clap your hands together over your head.

For Diagonal Line do a two armed disco point. (One arm up and one down at an angle)

For Zig-Zag, walk like an Egyptian (look it up for your young'ins).

For wavy lines wiggle your arms like worms.

For wide lines flex your arms out at your sides.

For thin bring your hand in the middle like you are praying.

Finish by pointing at lines you see. you could instruct them to specifically point at vertical or horizontal, etc..

PowerPoint Download

KbZipaDeeDooDah Font Download - you will need this to see the fun font in the file.

I would just like to say thank you to KB Designs for your AWESOME fonts... I know we have them all over our school. Also thank you to Pixabay, your free photo stock images are awesome to use for powerpoint background images.

First day with parents...

I was happy with the way the room came together. My parents really seemed to like how it looks in there and the kids were pretty excited.

I got to meet one class of 5th graders who seemed awesome and are really excited to take art.

I have gotten a good chunk of my lesson plans done...

For my first week everyone is going to decorate a hand outline to tell me about them. Those will be hung up in the hall with a sign that says something like "hands up for art!"

The next week I will start focusing on line.
Kinder will learn the "line dance" movements for horizontal, vertical, diagonal, etc. Then we will practice doing lines on a sheet with crayon and watercolors to make it stand out... followed up by line sculptures. We will ready the Squiggly Line.  Pictures will come soon.

First grade will learn about Mondrian and make a tree drawing (early style, using watercolors and crayons) and animal cutouts (decorated in later style, using tempera paints and permanent markers) to make a landscape with animals.

Second grade is studying Keith Haring and outlines. They will trace each other, color with paint and outline with white or black tempera paint.  They will as a group decorate two sculptures made of foam board that are cutouts like Haring' s style.

Third grade will look at Van Gogh and make landscapes with emotional lines. They will make a glue and pastel drawing so they can see the lines and then will write a letter like van Gogh did to talk to a friend or family member about their artwork.

Fourth grade will look at op art and how lines create illusion of space and volume through hatching. Then we will look at how we can create perspective using lines.

Fifth grade will finish the unit with contour line drawings inspired by Georgia O'Keefe.  They will learn about her life and style and do one, maybe two, contour lines and add watercolor over permanent marker.

I am still finishing my examples and I am always trying to create my resources to match... hopefully by next week I will have some hand pictures to post.

A final look around the room. .. finally ready to really get into planning.

I am finally happy with my classroom set up.  Helped that my classroom neighbor was getting rid of some things.  Mainly an awesome book shelf.  I traded the one I had,  which was taller than I wanted.  Happy to say the staff has been really happy with the set up of the room.  I did check with my neighbor, who is the EBD specialist, because I was concerned with over stimulation from decoration.  she said that while it was a bit more than it had been,  but less than most people's rooms, so don't worry.

I also started on my welcome side,  just waiting for four some paint to dry. 

I was happy to finish my artist corner so I can put up info about whatever artist we are studying.  Now I just need a collection of artists that will align to my curriculum.

Decor day

So I have been continuing to add decor as I go,  I am about to head in today to do a few more things around the room toward set up,  and then I am ready to start planning. 

I decided to re-arrange the room one last time and I am pretty happy with it now since it allows for more access to the white boards.

Happy another teacher said the room looks good.