Planning out what you are going to say and do on the first day of school can be a big task for a teacher. But as an art teacher, I am lucky enough to get to redo that same first day of school speech up to 30 times! That’s 6 different classes a day for a whole week if you aren’t following yet. And that’s a lot of repetition! Every class gets the same information and pretty much the same way except… kindergarten! They are a completely different beast, especially at the beginning of the year. What to do with kindergarten at the beginning of the year is also one of the most frequent questions I hear from newer art teachers. That’s why I’ve decided to walk you through exactly what I do with my kindergarteners on day one in the art room.
Let’s start at the beginning. When my kindergarten class walks up to the door, I greet them and tell them to walk into the art room and sit criss-cross applesauce on a circle on the carpet. My carpet has large concentric circles big enough for each student to have their own to sit on. Perfect as a reminder to stay in their own space! I pull up a chair and sit facing them. Then, we talk.
I introduce myself and have them repeat my name. Then I tell them we are going to go over our class list. I need to make sure they are all on my list and we aren’t missing anyone. “When I call your name, you raise your hand as high as you can. Let’s practice. Everyone raise your hand as high as you can.” I do this with them to show them. “Great! Now, let’s start.” I go through the list calling the names and waiting for them to raise their hands. Depending on how well they are listening, I might also explain to them about nicknames and have them tell me if they go by a shorter version of a longer name. You have to break it down like that and give them an example (if your name is Benjamin but you go by Ben). If you don’t explain this, you might get some very interesting nicknames they want to be called this year! If it is a rowdy group, I’ll skip this altogether and just read the names and if there is an obvious one that could have a nickname, I’ll ask that student.
Once we finally get through all the names (and yes, that could take a long time), we move onto important things about the art room. I have them look around the room and see how many doors there are. A lot! The door to the room, the door to the outside courtyard, the supply closet, kiln room, cabinets, display case. “But only 1 door is the door you need to worry about. Point to the only door you think we’ll need.” They will point to the main door…well, hopefully. This helps point out all the places they SHOULDN’T go in the art room. The cabinets, behind the big counter, the supply closet and kiln room, behind my desk, etc. Be very clear about where you want them to be and what you want them to stay away from! They need it spelled out for them.
Emergency drills. This is a super important one. However, they are still super young. I go over these quickly because I don’t want to answer a million questions. Not that questions aren’t good. But I’m talking about all those crazy “what if” questions that kids come up with. Their classroom teachers will talk to them about drills in way more detail, so I leave that up to them and just make sure they know the basics for the art room. I also tell them (and all my other classes too) that no matter where you are in the building, if a drill happens just look around for the closest adult and listen to them. Then, you’ll be fine!
Before we move on, I tell them we are going to sit at the tables in the big chairs. I will proceed to do an over exaggerated modeling of how to sit in a chair. Or rather, how NOT to sit in a chair. I get all twisted and turned around in different ways and ask them if that’s how you sit. They laugh and think I’m hysterical (maybe I should take this act on the road?) and then I release them to go find a seat in the chairs. I tell them to WALK to the chairs. I dont give them assigned seats until later. Letting them pick where they want to sit will help me see who is going to talk too much and place them at opposite sides of the room when I make my seating charts.
We are finally done with all the “rules” stuff. Now we can make something! And chances are a few kiddos have already shouted out, “Are we going to make anything today?!” The Dot by Peter Reynolds is a favorite book of many art teachers. I do this on day one with my kindergarteners. Sometimes, I read it to them while they are still on the carpet. But most of the time I use a video on YouTube and have them watch it in their new chairs. After the video, I demonstrate making my own dot and talk about how they are going to make a dot and it can look however they want. I hand out papers with their names already printed on the bottom – this helps me learn their names! Then they color their dots and have tons of fun. I get to see what skill levels they are coming in with and get an idea for who might need one on one help later on in the year.
I collect the artworks at the end of class so we can frame them next week. If we used markers, I teach them how to hear the marker “talk.” If you get really quiet – and I make them get super quiet. They can hear the cap of the marker clicking to say “thanks!” for putting the cap back on.
When we are all done and there’s only a few minutes until they leave, we clean up and line up at the door. Day one is done! I save the artworks and on day 2, we glue them inside a printed out picture frame, another great skill learned! This quick project is teaching all important skills to know, just one thing at a time.
After they walk out the door with their teacher, give yourself a huge pat on the back, because YOU DID IT! You survived the first day in your art room with kindergarteners. If you didn’t get through everything you had planned, don’t sweat it. They survived and you survived. Just get the important things in. You’ve got this!
Keep blending,
Laura