Kindergarten: Jasper Johns' OIl Pastel Numbers

The second official project that kindergartner's finished up before my leave was this Jasper Johns number project.  This is a repeat project that I did from last year, with some alterations.  Last year I was able to spread this out into more of a complete unit because I saw students twice a cycle, but this year I didn't feel I could spend that amount of time on this project, so I shortened it and altered it a bit more to fit within the Kindergarten Common Core Math standards. 

This project took about 2 1/2 days for most students to complete.  On the first day, I showed students my power point about Jasper Johns and we talked a bit about pop art.  One of the math standards for kindergarten is being able to count objects that are in a row, a column, a grid and in a random assortment, and then write the appropriate number.  To mirror that, I paired students up and gave them a brown bag filled with 9 wooden beads of different sizes.  One at a time, I had the students pull out a handful of beads, count them and write the number down in the first square on their paper in pencil.  Their partner was supposed to double check their counting and the number they wrote.  They alternated until each partner had their six squares filled with a number.

For the second class, I passed these back and showed the students how to turn their numbers into bubble numbers.  For their next set of directions, they were asked to choose ONE oil pastel color to color in their numbers.  For the most part, everyone followed that direction quite well.

The final portion of the second class and the subsequent class was to color in the background.  My directions were that students were supposed to choose THREE oil pastel colors to color in the background behind their numbers.  This is where some students didn't follow directions, or appeared to not be able to follow directions.  Many students grabbed an oil pastel and started coloring right over the top of their numbers.  Some colored around but used more than three colors.  I gave multiple demonstrations at each table to try and show students how to color AROUND their details, but many still struggled, so I sense that this is something that this group will need more work on!

Jasper Johns & Random Acts of Kindness

This post is a two-part"er"...First, I want to share this short little article that will be going out to the local newspapers!

During the month of December, elementary students at Edwards-Knox School participated in a “Random Acts of Kindness” challenge.  They were asked to do a random act of kindness for someone without expecting anything in return.  As part of the challenge, the elementary counselor, Mrs. Deleel and art teacher, Mrs. Impey, challenged the students to a penny war to benefit the Potsdam Humane Society.  Over the course of four weeks, students raised $704 for PHS!  Students also brought in donations of pet treats and cleaning supplies for the shelter and a class of 3^rd grade students created wire sculptures of cats and dogs to hang in the shelter.  The 1^st grade class, pictured here, brought in the most change during the challenge, $171!  Congratulations students at EK!  You should be proud of what you did together!

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Secondly, I would like to share our finished Kindergarten Jasper Johns projects.  We created two artworks in this unit.  First, after the introduction to Jasper Johns, we created a simple 0-9 number artwork.  I taught students how to turn their numbers into bubble numbers.  We drew the numbers with markers and then colored the background with crayons.  This project most definitely covers COMMON CORE MATH standards with the younger students.  Recognizing numbers, writing their numbers, and putting the numbers in order.  This project could be changed in an infinite number of ways...count by two's...count by 5's, count by 10's...even numbers, odd numbers, etc. etc. 

For the final project, I had students fold their own paper to make 16 squares and we numbered 0-9 again.  When we ran out of numbers, we started back at 0.  For this project, I introduced oil pastels. 

I did this project with the special needs class.  These two students have very poor motor skills, so instead of drawing their numbers, they had to trace a number pattern.

Jasper Johns Flags

Before Christmas break, one of the 2nd grade teachers asked me if I could do a silhouette project with her students in conjunction with President's Day and such.  I decided to turn this into a Jasper Johns unit to talk about the American flag and symbolism.  Part one of this unit is based off of a project I found on Pinterest.

We took a day to look at various Jasper Johns artwork in a power point, and then I asked students to create a drawing based on Jasper Johns art.

The next class, we talked about patriotism and the symbolism of the flag.  We also talked about how Jasper Johns always used interesting canvases for his artwork.  I passed out a packet of American songs and poems (the national anthem, the pledge, and America the Beautiful .  I had students cut these up and paste them onto some white tag board.  We talked about cutting them apart in creative ways to make the word placement interesting.

On the third day, we painted a blue square and red stripes (after reviewing the symbolism of those items), and I passed out white finger paint for the students to add the stripes.

For the second project in our unit, we are creating silhouettes of our heads and shoulders, painting the flag inside the silhouette, and then painting the background black, kind of for a reverse effect if you will.