Lauren Gogolin's Visual Art Instructable About Signs and Symbols

Introduction: Hi, my name is Lauren Gogolin and I am creating an instructable about signs and symbols found throughout the community. I am beginning by teaching my kindergarten students about various signs and symbols found in their everyday life and then having them create their own version of a sign or symbol of their choosing. Once created, students will share their visual art pieces to the class.

Materials Needed:

• Poster board
• White Sheet of Computer Paper
• Dowell rods
• Tape
• Markers
• Crayons
• Colored pencils
• Oil pastels
• Glue
• Scissors
• Paint
• Ruler
• Stencil
• Pipe cleaners

Steps:

1) Brainstorm ideas of topics students could use for signs and symbols
2) Conference with each student to see if he/she wants to create a sign or symbol and with what materials
3) Ask for parent volunteers to come in and assist with the creation of these projects
4) Lay out the needed materials
5) Creation of projects
6) Sharing of projects to peers and explanation of reasoning behind choices

Tips and Tricks:

1) Do everything in pencil, even if you are stenciling. That way if you mess up the spacing you can go back and erase.
2) Brainstorm what you want your poster to look like before beginning. It does not work to begin first and hope everything turns out well. I am glad I took the time to brainstorm first.
3) Outline your words in a dark color. It really makes the wording “pop.” If you use yellow or orange the words will not show up as well.
4) Give yourself plenty of time to work on the sign or symbol. Take your time and do it well, do not rush through it due to lack of time! If need be, spread out the project into two days.
5)  If painting, do the paint portion last, so your artwork has time to dry. If you paint first, you cannot do anything else until the paint dries.
6)  Use masking or duck tape to adhere the dowel rod or wooden stick to the back of the poster. Scotch tape is not strong enough to hold the weight. The rod or stick will fall right off.
7)  Markers seem to work best on poster board. Colored pencils do not show up as well and crayons tend to smear. On the other hand, colored pencils work better on computer paper than markers. Markers tend to run on white paper.
8)  In terms of glue, you have to use more of a glue stick to make things stick and less actual glue because otherwise you will have a runny mess. Again, you have to think about “drying” time when using glue. Glue things last, so you can continue working on your art project.


http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/hiat/newsletters/vol 3issue3/keyboard.jpg

http://minibooks.scholastic.com/minibooks/detail/?id=36990.