This was one of the first lessons I was able to teach kindergarten from the beginning to the end. The lesson was written by Cassie Stephens and it was part of my cooperating teacher's curriculum, so it was not one that I developed. However, it taught me SO SO much about supply management, behavior management, and multi-tasking in the art room.
Students were introduced to printmaking, created their own heart stamp (my amazingly creative CT created the sign seen above out of the heart stamps), made a heart printed background, participated in a guided drawing, then finally cut and pasted the drawing on their background.
One of my first informal observations was done during the printing process and it was eye-opening. Overall, my feedback was positive :) but it gave me a realistic idea of what it was like to run kinder on my own. (afterward, I told my fellow student teachers that it was similar to herding cats...with paint lol) Up until this point, my Ct was helping with materials. This is not a realistic approach in many art rooms, especially those without aides. So when I was on my own, I was able to understand what it would be like when I took over all teaching responsibilities. I consider it a successful day because all students were able to create their background and clean up before the class was over. Plus I learned how to alter attention-grabbing techniques on the fly, how to utilize student volunteers to help with supply distribution, and (unfortunately) what it was like to communicate behavior issues to the homeroom teacher for two students.
Throughout the lesson, I learned a great deal about classroom management and approaches to both printmaking and guided drawings with Kinder. Overall, I found I was consistent with positive feedback and encouragement for students and developed stronger relationships with my students.
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