Royalty Rules: What Am I Teaching in the Beginning Weeks for Lower El grades K-3

Rules, behaviors, procedures... How can I cover these while still making art exciting? We are already a few weeks into school and I am still establishing how to "be" in art.

Here was my first attempt with the younger grades to combine how to act, use materials, draw, and connect with art history.  I called it Royalty Rules. We drew formal portraits of rich royal figures who represent the best things about art.

What we covered in the first 5-10 mins: 
--how to hold pencils or markers;
--where I keep pencils, sharpeners, etc. because I'm trying to go TAB this year.
--creating a character/characteristic: Queen of Clean, King of Creativity, Painting Prince, Princess    Pointillism. Another one that a student came up with was Sir Smilie the II.
--formal portraits vs. informal portraits
--where to place facial features; we started with the letter U and drew a crown, added neck/shoulders then went back to the face
--art history: portraits, Mona Lisa, etc.
--elements: line, shape
--principles: balance
--how we can act "proper" in art class (I acted dramatically proper to demonstrate this. Of course we won't act snobbish and like royalty for the whole year, but now we have a reference point to pull ourselves out of the chaos and into control. HA!)

Here are some examples:

 Prince Yellow 

and the King of Wisdom.

Can I also confess that this meme is establishing itself as the root for the curriculum this fall? 

It totally is ruling my world. Already we've talked about Leonardo AND I see a future for Donatello entering very soon. I'll post about that in the next few weeks. But for now, royalty is definitely rocking my art room and I love it!