Friday, October 17, 2014

If the Dinosaurs Came Back


Kindergarten artists use dinosaurs and prehistoric art during several projects throughout the year as their "Art from other times and places" focus. I saw this book by Bernard Most in our media center and I was intrigued by the cover illustration, and the story was funny and inventive. The kids enjoyed contrasting the modern setting with the natural dino habitat.
We worked on our drawing skills here, combining geometric shapes for the city setting and combining organic shapes for the dinos. We used the bubble cutting technique, cutting a large bubble around the dino first then making the bubble smaller and smaller without actually touching the line (which would pop the bubble). This way of cutting really helps young kids who tend to cut straight through lines and have the pieces fall apart. I think we only lost one wing the whole week!













14 comments:

  1. Oh, wow, I love this. I'm thinking I'll go with clay fossils again this year and do this prior for a little dino unit-o.

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  2. Hello! Can you elaborate on the "bubble" cutting technique you use for kindergarten students? I would really appreciate it =o)

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    1. Hi Ms. Alba - I will try to add some pics of the technique to go with my description - check back in a couple of days :)

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    2. Also, look closely at the dinos in Carmel's paper and Raphael's art - see how the paper is cut just outside the black outline instead of ON the line? It's like there is a bubble around the shape. It starts out as a big bubble, with lots of space around the shape, then we keep going around with the scissors, making the bubble grow smaller as we cut away more if the background. We try not to touch the black line with our scissors at all to keep from popping the bubble (or accidentally cutting through a leg or wing)

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    3. Thank you! Pictures would also be nice because I can use them as a reference for a kindergarten cutting chart. Wonderful blog by the way.

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  3. Hi Hope. We have just made art with the littlies, using Bernard Mosts book. Although we used a reading by a child, online, as the library didn't have the book. It was just as successful. I LOVE your bubble cutting. I have fumbled around with all sorts of language to achieve just that. Many thanks.

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    1. So glad to hear it worked for you - cutting complex shapes has always been a struggle with the young ones and this is the best way I've found to keep them from cutting through parts. I LOVE your mural approach!

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  4. I don't know why dinosaurs are so popular with younger children but it's a great subject to tackle in art! I love this project! Your students did a great job! I love also the bubble cutting!

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  5. What size paper works well? 9x12 or 18x24?

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    1. I typically do most things 9x12" including this, but it would be easy to scale up. In fact, I would have them do their dinos first and see how big they are, then decide on the best size for the background.

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  6. Hi Hope,
    Did you do a directed drawing for the dinos? Or let them go at it by themselves? I think I have some plastic dinos. I'm wondering if observation drawing would help. Thanks!

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    1. Hi Suzanne - I gave each table a folder with an assortment of step-by-step drawings I found online as well as some toy dinosaurs to look at. I did a quick demo of how to follow the steps since many of the kids hadn't done that before, but they were familiar with looking for simple shapes.

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  7. Just perfect ! All different and quirky, as child art should be. Kudos ❤️

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