Cindy at
Kinder Kay has agreed to be a guest author today at Vintage Teacher. (She has allowed me to share her freebie products as well on past Five Friday Freebies.) I am amazed at the talent she shares with her students and the way she brings drawing and writing together.
Student Drawing and Writing
I am so flattered that I have been asked to be an author on Vintage Teacher! I have been an elementary (second grade and presently, kindergarten) teacher for 23 years (can’t believe it!) and through those years, I have grown into the teacher I am today because of all the advice I have received from some really awesome teachers! So I am glad to be able to share, in a small way, a classroom-tested idea that I have used with my students that has involved into something that brings pride to both my students and me!
I love to teach children to draw and write! Helping children to visualize shapes within everyday objects is such a joy! Even my kinders can make some really cool pictures once they start to realize that all they have to do is draw shapes! I start with teacher-directed lessons and then once they get the hang of how it is done, I let them go and usually what my students come up with is SO MUCH better than what I could do! I am NOT an artist! I struggled with drawing and painting all through school – just like most of us! But once I started observing the world through different eyes, I realized that just knowing a few basic shapes or strokes can help us to create almost anything!
In the “old days”, I introduced my lessons with an overhead projector and I would put pictures of everyday objects on the screen and allow my students to take the pen and circle the shapes that they saw in the picture. Now I have a Promethean board and we can have all sorts of fun searching for shapes on the “big” board! Another fun way to search for everyday shapes is to simply attach paper to a clipboard, walk outside, and start sketching! It is so amazing to see what children can see! Their observation skills are so much more attuned to visual cues than mine and they have taught ME to see shapes I didn’t realize were there!
For awhile, I was simply teaching my students to draw, but I soon realized that they were so excited to see what they could create, that I thought “Why not have them write about their creation, too?” So from the beginning lesson, I ask my students to add some words to their picture. Even if is only the beginning sound of the word prefaced with a high frequency word such as “the or a”; it is the start of their writing journey. The drawing/cutting techniques that I use with my students help them with their handwriting, too! Once they can take control of their pencil or scissors to create a picture, they have more confidence in their ability to write a letter, a word, or even a sentence. The end of the school year astounds me by what they can do!
If you are interested in trying some of my ideas, I have a product in my TPT store that gives children step-by-step directions for drawing or cutting simple everyday animals.
Above are some examples of a finished product as well as an example of a step-by-step illustration of how easy it is to create! Do you see the ovals? The circles? The arrows? The hills?
Anyone can do this – teacher or student! All it takes is a pencil, some paper, and a desire!
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