Value Caterpillars

I wanted to do a value lesson with Kindergarten, but was afraid that paint mixing would be a bit too complicated for the super little ones. I went to Lowes and grabbed a bunch of paint samples that went from light to dark, and cut out circles from each one. I place the 4 samples in little cups and distributed them to the students to order from light to dark to make little caterpillars. I think the lesson was very successful, and had the perfect about of challenge for them.

Artist: n/a

Elements: Shape, Value

Concepts: Value

Materials: Paint samples, green and yellow construction paper, black sharpie, scissors, glue

Laurel Burch Cats

 All of the students know how cat-obsessed I am, and were really excited to share my love for cats with this project. I showed second grade examples of Laurel Burch's work, and pointed out all the different colors and patterns. I showed them how to draw a cat in Burch's style, and then they got decorating! It's usually tough for my kids to come up with ideas for patterns, so I was really happy to see how much work they put into these.

Artist: Laurel Burch

Elements: Line, Shape

Concepts: Pattern

Materials: black construction paper, colored construction paper, colored sharpie markers, scissors, glue, construction paper crayons

Color Wheel Clowns

When I first saw this lesson idea, I was so excited to do it! However, apparently, my kids do NOT like clowns. Is that all kids now, or just mine? I love how they turned out anyway, and it was a great introduction to the color wheel and color mixing. Maybe next year, I will incorporate it a bit differently though.

Artist: n/a

Elements: Color

Concepts: Color mixing, Color wheel order

Materials: white tag board, oil pastels (start with only red, blue, and yellow for the wheel)

Pop Art Hearts

For a quick Valentines Day project, the kindergarteners learned about pattern but completing these great Pop Art work sheets by Jenny K. Students then wrote a list of things that they love to go along with it. This was a great lesson for adding literacy into the curriculum and assessing their writing.

Artist: Romero Britto

Elements: Line, Space

Concepts: Pattern, Pop Art

Materials: Heart Template, crayons, and construction paper

Grandma Moses Snowy Landscapes

When I was rewriting the curriculum for Kindergarten, I noticed that there were originally a few Grandma Moses inspired projects that they wanted me to do. I didn't want to exclude anything that the school wanted, so I came up with this project. Students learned how to overlap lines to create hills, and use blue and white oil pastels to color in the snow while creating depth. After that, they drew little trees, houses, and people for their tiny snowy towns!

Artist: Grandma Moses

Elements: Line, Shape, Value, Space

Concepts: Folk Art, Depth and Perspective

Materials: Dark blue construction paper, Oil Pastels

Rothko Chalk Drawings

Students learned about Rothko today. I showed images of his paintings and asked how they made them feel. Each student chose a feeling, and used colors to show that feeling. I was surprised how well they understood, and was very impressed by the results!

Artist: Rothko

Elements: Shape, Color

Concepts: Color and Emotions

Materials: Construction Paper, Colored Chalk

    

   

Pinch Pot Fish

2nd grade made these adorable pinch pot fish! I showed them how to make a pinch pot, and then they learned how to score and slip to add eyes, fins, and a tail.

Artist: n/a

Elements: Shape, Color, Texture

Concepts: Pinch Pot, Score and Slip, Warm Colors

Materials: Air dry clay, acrylic paints

Here they are after drying. A lot of pieces fell off because the scoring and slipping wasn't perfect, but a hot glue gun fixed them all right up.