Friday, September 23, 2011

Apple Tree Art

Happy Friday! Kerri here...
I heart teaching art! I love love love to see my students' personalities and creativity come to life through their artwork. I also LOATHE teaching it sometimes, because it is SO DANG HARD for some of my firsties to follow directions and their sense of visual/spatial "whatever you call it" is not developed yet, so they have a really hard time watching me do a step and then doing the step on their own. This year, however, I have a bunch of little "I can do it!" artists in my class, so teaching them art has been lots of fun!


I have decided to have a weekly Friday "Art" post on the blog, partly to keep a record of the art projects I am doing each week, just in case any of my parents want to see what we are creating, and also to give all of you, my friends, some ideas (if you want them!) 


Much of my inspiration comes from this website: www.tlclessons.com. I have many, many of Kaye Espinosa's art books and I used to use them almost every week when I taught Kinder. Over the years, I have come up with many of my own projects, but the TLC Art lesson model I still exclusively use. My mantra is ABSOLUTELY NO PATTERNS ALLOWED. Everything my kids create is made without a pattern and without anything that they first trace and cut out, or outlined shapes that they cut out. They do all of the cutting themselves without a pattern, and the results are AMAZING!
Here are our apple trees (we still need to glue on the poem):



 Are they so cute? I love them because each one is unique and the kids' personalities really shine through their artwork. I plan on gluing on an apple tree poem and we will save these for our end of the year "First Grade Journey" Art and writing books.
First Grade Adventure Book


Here are the dimensions for the apple tree, if you want to make your own:


Blue background--- 12x18


Green grass---  12x4 cut like "crocodile teeth"


Brown Trunk---  9x3  cut with wavy lines down both sides. Use the wavy line scraps for branches on the tree trunk


Green bunches of leaves---  (4)  4.5x3 pieces for each child to make 4 different bunches of leaves. Cut each rectangle into a circle by cutting off the big corners and then the baby corners (TLC ART calls this a magic oval), and then cut each circle like a cloud to make it look like bunches of leaves.


red tissue paper--- cut into 1.5x1.5 squares for apples. 


You can download the poem below. I sing it to the tune of ABC's, but I have no idea where it originally came from. :)
Apple Poem
Hope you find my directions useful! I would love to hear how you teach your kiddos art. Any other apple tree ideas out there??
Toodles!

9 comments:

Fran Kramer said...

The art is adorable. I love how you did this project and I bet the kids loved it too!
Fran@kindergartencrayons.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

Okay, so I STINK at making and teaching art. So, here is my question to you: How long do these projects {like your apple tree one} take if the kids aren't using a pattern or tracer? I'm only wondering because I am required to spend such and such time every day for each subject. Which doesn't leave me a lot of time at the end of the day for unit projects. I would prefer to have my kids do it on their own, but I'm concerned about the timing. Any suggestions for the ever struggling artist?
Andi

Kerri and Lindsay said...

Hi Andi! We do the project step by step together, basically the "I do, then you do" model and it takes them 45 minutes start to finish. You definitely have to keep the lesson moving, but they get it done and clean up too, which is awesome! Hope this helps!
Kerri

Anonymous said...

I just found your blog. Love it! I too love art for kids. These apple trees are adorable. I will be doing these next week. Thanks for sharing!!!
http://wildaboutk.blogspot.com/

Unknown said...

That helps a lot. Thanks! I'll give it a try and hope it turns out as cute as yours!!!! {fingers crossed}

Dana said...

Hi ladies! I wanted to let y'all know that I gave you the Versatile Blogger Award! You two are an amazing source of so many helpful ideas and tips! Thank you for all that you do! :)

Dana
3rd Grade Gridiron

Tonia said...

Love your trees! I am one lucky K teacher! Kaye Espinosa's grandchildren go to my school. Her grandson is in my class and she comes once a week to do a TLC lesson. It is so much fun watching her teach and the kids have wonderful projects and books to treasure from Kindergarten. I had her granddaughter two years ago. Thanks for letting me share!
Tonia in Redlands,CA
Tvento1313@msn.com

jennifer said...

Hi, I just found your blog and your ideas are great:) I'm a K teacher and was interested on how you make your "first grade adventure book" what's in it? How do you put it together?
Jennifer, FL
Mrsgutierrezmcs@gmail.com

Miss Rachel said...

I like your apple idea. Here are some of the things that we have been doing for apples in my kindergarten class:
http://missrachelskindergarten.blogspot.com/search/label/apples

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