Kindergarten students learn combine and draw basic shapes to make animals drawings

First you help kids identify and learn the shapes. Each kindergarten should be able to identify and draw circles, semi-circles, squares, and rectangles of all types. I use a smart board to draw each animal "recipe" in front of them during the lesson intro, but also while they are working. Once they get the formula, they begin flying away and making their own amazing drawings. 

To make these lines and shapes more palatable and easier to draw I will often give the line/shape a simple, kid-friendly name. For the scales I might use the words, "u-shaped line"for the humps on the bat wings I used the words a "very long M"to describe them

Do not draw perfect circles when demonstrating. Being ultra-perfectionist towards your own work while demonstrating will send the message that mistakes are bad. Mistakes are fine and I would even have kids not get erasers and demonstrate how they could turn their mistakes into new ideas. This child (above) may need to be directly told that mistakes are okay so that she will move forward in her development. 

Prek artists created this mural as a response to reading Swimmy by Leo Lionni

Pre-Kindergarten artists read the book Swimmy in art class. In a 3-part class, children created this mural. First, they sponge painted a large paper. Then they traced fish stencils and decorated their fish with oil pastels. The third class they glued on their fish onto the mural and used white and blue oil pastels to add 'bubles' to the water.

Wet-on-Wet and Wet-on-Dry to create depth...

Children created their 'oceans' using the wet-on-wet technique and the ocean creatures were created by using the wet-on-dry technique. The result is a painting with depth. The fish look closer than the ocean waves.

Making an Ocean-Prek (Wierenga)

Kids in Ms. Wierenga's class have created these beautiful fish using cray pas and watercolor. Children used various types of lines to decorate the fish, such as wiggly lines, zig zag lines, and bumpy lines.

The background was also created by the kids. Children learned about colors changing when mixed though making these walls of water. Like how green happens when blue and yellow are used. Or how light blue appears when white and blue are mixed.

Children learned how to make roundish marks on paper by using their brush like a stamp...up and down marks were the only marks allowed in this activity. This way they learned another way to use their brushes besides gliding them across the paper.