Autumnal Leaves by Kindergarten

What a beautiful and sophisticated combination of drawing, painting and collage - all achieved by my favorite people to teach - the Kindergartners!!! 

Day One:

The first step in this multi-media project was for each kinder to draw a large leaf on 11"x 14" paper - before class, I pre-drew a spine vertically down the middle of each paper to help students achieve the right size. Then I showed them how to draw two big rainbows above the spine to create the edges of the leaf. They set about adding ribs as they chose and tried to keep track of how many they drew on each side to make them symmetrical as leaves are in nature. Everything was traced in Sharpie marker and then they used unwrapped crayons to add texture to the leaf.

Day Two:
I gave the kids magenta, orange and yellow tempera cakes and allowed them to paint freely after a quick demonstration on proper brush care and painting etiquette.

Day Three:

We began working on the backgrounds for the leaves. Each student received a piece of 12"x 16" piece of art paper and we talked about creating movement in our artwork - specifically, using spirals and dashes. I referenced Vincent van Gogh's, Starry Night. The kids used autumnal colored paint sticks to make a variety of spirals and dashes. Then they cut out their leaf from the previous week and used regular white glue to affix it to their background paper. 

Day Four:

I pre-cut three different types of leaves for the kids - a combination of die cuts from the office and my own scissor work. Students were shown how to take one of each each and use a glue stick to affix them anywhere to the composition. They used black crayons on top of these three leaves to create texture and emphasis. The crowning jewel here is gold tempera paint which I passed out at the end of class - the kids went bananas over it!!!! I allowed them to use the gold to their heart's content :)