A Winning Lesson for the First Day of Kindergarten Art

A Winning Lesson for the First Day of Kindergarten Art:
You may think I am crazy, but I jump right into an art project on the first day of Kindergarten art! In this video, I will tell you all about what project I do, how I accomplish it, and how I use this first art project as an important assessment tool.

[hirstm]

This project could also be adapted for any grade level as a pre-assessment! Believe it or not, even high school students have problems with cutting, following directions, gluing, etc. They are so worried about theirs looking "good" or worse than their neighbors and their general insecurity that this problem would be a good starting point for a discussion about originality, inclusion of required criteria, composition, criticism, etc. It would create an even playing field to begin the year with.

[brendanwalter]

This might work for Jessica, or any number of other teachers. In my limited experience though, for kindergartners during their first day(s) or week(s), this lesson proved to have way too many directed components to fit into one or two 35-minute periods with a classroom full of kids.

"Draw X in Y shape" "Draw A in B shape" "Use scissors to cut out the shapes" "choose a paper color" "Glue down your shapes"

That's easy for an adult or even a third or fourth grader, but some of my kindergartners have never touched scissors before, and few can follow more than one or two-step directions. I get that this is partly intended as an assessment (and it definitely served that purpose for me), but I'm really not sure how Jessica could achieve this in 35 (or 70) minutes with K-grade students. She's certainly a better teacher than me. From my experience, though, I tried this lesson once with my classes and don't intend to do so again. For me it's been a recipe for a many-day project at best, or student endangerment (given the need for scissors) at worst.

[amyminehart]

Question: I was just getting ready to print, and I feel like I want to do away with the arrows. Can you tell me the rationale? The shapes are cut out, so does the direction of the paper matter? Is that just to avoid the questions about which way it should go? Do you wait to tell them what they are going to make with these shapes? Thanks! I just found the channel and it is so fabulous!

[forestbright]

I have a question:  could the students draw the shapes themselves instead of using the handout?

[susanlutz]

Where do I find the download for this? Thank you

[lisasolo]

She obviously doesn't teach in a heavily ESL environment.