Kindergarten Mondrian Collage

Kindergarteners talked about the three primary colors.  We then looked at images by artist Piet Mondrian who made his art with only primary colors.  We also focused on squares and rectangles to create these compositions.  This lesson also put our gluing skills to test.  I have two gluing rules: "no flippies and no squishes." We watched this fun video to get students in the creating mood!

4th Grade Abstract Jazz

4th Graders looked at the South African artist Ray Berman's abstract pieces.  As Ray Berman is influenced by South African Urban Jazz Music, students listened to this music and made abstract paintings.  They then added a collage of jazz instruments they heard in the music.  Click here to hear some of the music we listened to.

Artist Ray Berman Paintings:

     

Student Examples:

Kindergarten Portraits

To start this lesson we read "I Like Myself" by Karen Beaumont.  We talked about differences and how not everyone is the same, but it's okay because that is what makes all of us special.

Overview

High on energy and imagination, this ode to self-esteem encourages kids to appreciate everything about themselves—inside and out. Messy hair? Beaver breath? So what! Here's a little girl who knows what really matters.  At once silly and serious, Karen Beaumont's joyous rhyming text and David Catrow's wild illustrations unite in a book that is sassy, soulful—and straight from the heart.

Kindergarten "The Dot"

Based on the book "The Dot" by Peter H. Reynolds using oil pastels and watercolor.

Overview

With a simple, witty story and free-spirited illustrations, Peter H. Reynolds entices even the stubbornly uncreative among us to make a mark - and follow where it takes us.

Her teacher smiled. "Just make a mark and see where it takes you."

Art class is over, but Vashti is sitting glued to her chair in front of a blank piece of paper. The words of her teacher are a gentle invitation to express herself. But Vashti can’t draw - she’s no artist. To prove her point, Vashti jabs at a blank sheet of paper to make an unremarkable and angry mark. "There!" she says.

That one little dot marks the beginning of Vashti’s journey of surprise and self-discovery. That special moment is the core of Peter H. Reynolds’s delicate fable about the creative spirit in all of us.    

This lesson stressed the importance of sometimes we make mistakes, but in art you can take a mistake and make it into a masterpiece.

1st Grade Line Portraits

We began this lesson by reading the book, "I Like Myself" by Karen Beaumont. We talked about differences and how we should celebrate them.

Overview

High on energy and imagination, this ode to self-esteem encourages kids to appreciate everything about themselves—inside and out. Messy hair? Beaver breath? So what! Here's a little girl who knows what really matters. At once silly and serious, Karen Beaumont's joyous rhyming text and David Catrow's wild illustrations unite in a book that is sassy, soulful—and straight from the heart.

First graders discussed line and the many different types.  We discussed that a line has a beginning and an end.  This project was focused on lines that describe me.

2nd Grade Clowns

2nd graders talked about emotion, pattern, and the figure for this project.  Students made a clown with oil pastels on black paper. Students had to give their clown an identifiable emotion and have a pattern somewhere on their clown.  We talked about the human figure because clowns are just people with makeup and costumes.