At that point I explained that artists also have favorite shapes and that Piet Mondrian was an artist who liked squares and rectangles. We took a virtual museum gallery walk and saw some of his famous work. I then led the students to discover that there were some prominent colors in a lot of his "shape art." This is when I introduced them to primary colors.
Our kinder/TK classes start off the school year's math lessons with "shapes." This week, we specifically focused on squares and rectangles. We have revised the pacing plan so that students cover shapes & sorting first because our past teaching experiences (all four K teachers have taught kindergarten for over 10 years) confirm that starting with something familiar, like shapes, eases stress and makes for an easier transition into more abstract concepts later (like numbers).
We began the lesson by making a list describing rectangles. We confirmed our answers by singing the song, "We Are Rectangles!" We then made a list describing squares and sang the song, "We Are Squares!" to confirm those answers.
I modeled how to create squares and rectangles using black strips of paper. I explained that they were now going to think like artists and create their own work. I always stress that sometimes mistakes are made and that their job is to simply fix it. The students were given a large white paper and black strips. With a glue stick and scissors inside their pencil box, they went to work. When it comes to art, I really try to keep my hands off of their work. I might make an observation or a suggestion, but for the most part I let their art be.
Most of the students were done in about 30 minutes. As you can see, most students got the idea. I am always shocked at how many really internalize the idea of "thinking like an artist." If you look closely, you might even be able to pick out the renegade (hint, look for a spiral above). I love it!
Here We Come to Save the Day!
We are three energetic kindergarten teachers who want to share our kinder experience with you!