Kindergarten Secondary Shapes

So this past week, two of my three kindergarten classes finished up their Secondary Shapes project.   I run this project similar to my Primary Lines project and since I added the silver paper aspect this year, I decided to do the same and added a gold paper aspect this year as well!

Again, this project is ran as a two day project.  On the first day, we review the primary colors and see if everyone can remember how to make the secondary colors.  Color mixing with play dough is very powerful!  I'd say 80% of the kids remembered how to make the secondary colors from the beginning of the year...pretty good for kindergarten!  Then, we talk about shapes.  Right now I just touch on basic geometric shapes, like squares, circles, rectangles, and triangles.  I hang out a shape worksheet that has three of each shape on it and have the students trace the shapes and then draw the shape on their own.  Common Core Alert!: We also look at the word for each shape and figure out what letter it starts with and we make the sound of that letter.  Quite a few students then connect that letter with their name if their name has that letter in it.

While we wait for everyone to catch up, I have them turn their papers over and practice drawing any other shapes they may know how to draw, like hearts and stars.  The nice part about doing it this way is that if there are any students who don't have the motor skills to control a pencil well enough to draw a geometric shape, I can then explain to them about organic shapes!  It's a win-win! ;)

Also on the first day of this project, we then paint our shapes with tempera paint.  I used to do this project with watercolor paint, but since I am not happy with the washable watercolors I bought this year, I decided to go with tempera again and use it as a review of how to paint with tempera paint.  I think I will continue doing it this way...the kids have really got the hang of how to rinse off the brushes and use the paint.  I'll save watercolor for a different time.  

About half way through their work time, I then put my example up on the board and we talk about composition, in terms of filling up the entire piece of paper with painted shapes...not just paint small shapes in the middle.  Unfortunately, this led to quite a few students copying some of my painting aspects, but not too badly.

Would you believe that this is how all the tables looked after the kids were done cleaning???  And this is before we cleaned up!  I think using the tempera twice in a row really helped...I also think this just happens to be a more talented and conscientious group of kindergartners   Or maybe I'm delivering the idea of being neat painters a little bit better this year.  Who knows!  I'd like to say it's a combination of all three! 

Okay, on day two, the last day of this project, I had the students cut out shapes from secondary colored construction paper and gold paper.  I told them they had to cut out two shapes from each of the secondary colors and they could cut out as many as they wanted from the gold paper.  They did a really nice job with these!  Much better with shapes than with lines, I think.  After our next unit, we may have to revisit lines again with another project.