Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Kindergarten Zoophonics Books

Kindergarten artists are beginning their Zoophonics books! They are going to be their own illustrators for their book of Zoophonics characters! Each page of the book is devoted to one letter animal that they draw and color.




































6 comments:

  1. Hi, I'm an art teacher too and I would like to know more about the zoophonics books project. Do you give each child I'm guessing 7 sheets of paper and then fold them in half to make enough pages for the whole alphabet? Do you use permanent marker to outline the drawings? If so, does it bleed through to the back of the page? Do you draw on one page per class or more?

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    1. Yes, just as you said, just fold them, staple them, and write one letter per page with black crayon. Marker bleeds through. Draw and color with black crayon as well. We have 50 min. classes and we can draw around 3 per class. Sometimes we color them, sometimes we sing the zoo phonics song.... etc. Kindergarteners just can't sit still for a whole 50 min. :) Good luck!

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    2. I really like this idea, though my students lack in confidence and generally are at a pretty low skill level. Do you show them images of the animals to draw from or do step by step drawing? Are they all doing the same animal for each letter? If not do you give them images of the animals they choose?

      Thank you

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    3. HI! We mix in the zoo phonics animals between other more "serious" artist projects and art element projects. The kids love it and it's a great connection between what they are doing in their classroom and art. We do step by step drawing of each zoo phonics animal and I do have images of that animal on the board (when I have some). But generally, it is a step by step "looking for shapes and letters" to help us draw exercise. ex. where do you see an oval... we can use a letter J for the nose etc. This makes the drawing less "scary" or overwhelming to them. Also, to help them with confidence,I read the book "Ish" at the beginning of the year and refer back to it when needed. Also, I call myself the "Art Doctor" and speak in a silly voice when a kid is so frustrated that theirs isn't "right." I tell them that I (and then "we" when they grow in confidence) can fix any art problem! Works almost every time. :) Good luck!

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  2. This seems like a great project, and I would love to work with a variation of it for my students. I am interested to know what you did for those tricky letters like "X" or "Q?"

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  3. It is a great filler project between what I like to think of as projects with more substance (artists, art elements,etc.) and it is a great connection to the zoo phonics program that most kindergarten students (around here anyway) use. Just google zoo phonics and there is an animal for each letter that goes with a zoo phonics song called "Meet me at the Zoo." X is for Xavier Fox and Q is for Queeny Quail. It is also a fun thing for the kids to be able to take home a large book at the end of the year and they can see how their drawing skills have progressed though out the course of the year. Good luck and have fun!

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