Kindergarten Texture Mosaics!

This was a great unit that lasted a little over a month. It started out as a unit on texture - I had kids actually touch things like their hair, the rug, their shoes, and talk about the way these different things felt. I really wanted to drive home the idea that texture can describe both the way things feel and look. 

We made two major texture based artworks, one was a tempera painting that we put saran wrap over to create a texture as it dried, and the other was a texture grid that we used rubbing plates and crayons to produce. 

While the artwork came out pretty cool, and the kids liked the activity a lot, I wanted to make something a little more meaningful. So I spoke with my cooperating teacher, and together we came up with the idea of mosaics. We talked as a class about what a mosaic actually is - a big picture made up of tiny shapes, sort of like a puzzle!We had the kids practice on a small scale at first, and then eventually they moved to a large scale mosaic that took up about a third of the wall in the hallway outside of the art room. 

The students cut up their texture artwork into small squares (fine motor skills!), and then glued them onto the large scale mosaic (gross motor skills!). This project really fostered a sense of community and collaboration, as the entire kindergarten got the opportunity to work on it at one point or another. 

I have to say I am super proud of my students, they really knocked this one out of the ball park!