I really believe students will live up to your expectations – if you expect great things, they will show you that. If you expect a room full of chaos – they will show you that too.

A kindergartener using a sharpie

A sharpie wielding kindergarten artist

With this in mind, I took a chance and used permanent markers with kindergarten and first grade. And they rocked it!

We read the book, Look! Look! Look! by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace. After showing students step by step how to draw a cartoon mouse (and explaining it was ok if their mouse looked different from their neighbors) in pencil, they outlined them in sharpie and finally added watercolor. I dread the cookie-cutter, pinterest-y perfect art project. To avoid this I let students add any accessories – clothes, glasses, fur, food, etc. to their mouse. They also chose their own colors.

Superhero Mouse

Yay watercolors!

Students painting their mice.

Exploring with watercolors

This mouse had bat wings

Ok, ok, there was ONE class that just wasn’t ready for sharpies or paint – no matter how great my expectations were.

Check out my responsible artists!