Kindergarten Cicle Improv

I began this lesson with an intention to follow along with a previous plan I developed a few years ago, but it grew into a varation and I am very pleased with the results.

On day one, students traced a variety of circles onto warm colored papers (I also included brown). I asked them to make at least five circles to place onto a piece of white art paper. We practiced using scissors and glue and learned about overlapping.

On day two, I set out egg cartons filled with cool colored tempera paints and asked my students to paint the white parts of the paper. We practiced proper paint etiquette and technique and learned where the background is located in an artwork.While the kids were away, I used a Chobani yogurt cup and black tempera paint to stamp 5 black circles onto their paintings (a little art teacher collaboration never hurts). 

On the final day, we experienced using oil pastels to color inside the empty black circles. We discussed making patterns in some sections of the paper too, like stripes. 

These turned out pretty coolio, don't you think?

Name Abstractions by 3rd grade

 

This was a great beginning to 3rd grade this year - it allowed my students a chance to practice drawing letters in block style as well as loosen up and go with the flow when things didn't always turn out perfectly. We talked about how the imperfections of our work bring them to life and make them much more interesting. On day one, students practiced on a piece of square copy paper, in order to gain confidence in filling the space as well as to practice creating block/bubble style letters. Because some names are short and others long, the kids had to problem solve how they would make it work.

On day two, we lightly sketched onto art paper referring to our sketches from the previous week. 

Black paint was used to fill in the forms. 

On day three, we made "walls" around the outside and inside of the letters to make a barrier in order to prevent the black tempera from coming back to life :) We also added patterns on top of the letters - we used construction paper crayons. Then students used Crayola watercolors to add paint to any white areas of the paper. These look so cool, especially when grouped together! 

Line & Color Abstracts by 1st grade

Wow, time is flying and I am having a very difficult time keeping up with the posting of all our really cool art assignments! This is an oldie but goodie......I had the kids work it out a little differently than normal. The first day was spent working as a "color scientist." Students were asked to mix paint directly onto the very large art paper and try to make as many colors as possible. The following week, we reviewed the lines of art and painted them directly onto our paintings using black paint. Beautiful abstracts!!!