Secondary Samba

My 1st grade lesson to prepare students for the Greg Percy Songs in the Key of Art assembly was based on his song the Secondary Samba. The songs is very straight forward- about starting with the primary colors and which primaries are used to mix secondaries. Students at each table mixed primary colored tempera paint to create secondary colors. Next, they painted sections of a paper which they had folded in thirds with each color. This obviously didn't take a whole class period so I think the students had free draw time after they cleaned up. In the second class period, the students cut their colors apart and used their painted paper to make a collage on black paper. After the shapes were glued, students could use oil pastels and/or construction paper crayons to add details.

Swirly Color Wheels

My student teacher wanted to do a color mixing lesson with Kindergarten. She had found an activity where kids mixed paint on plates by squishing it around inside plastic bags and as we talked about the logistics, this is what we came up with. Each student had a disposable plate with a little squirt of each of the primary colors on it. Miss Bennett talked to the students about how to use their special tool of the day- one index finger! The students followed along as she demonstrated pulling a little bit of two colors to mix in between to create a secondary color. After the three secondary colors were created, the students placed a circle of white paper on top and swirled it. (I inherited a ton of pre cut circles- I don't know what they are from but it was nice to use some of them!)

We kept all the plates and plan to use them as scales to form a dragon in the hallway for our East Asian studies.

Here are all the swirly color wheels displayed in the hallway around the giant collaborative color wheel in the center. The week before the swirly color wheel lesson, each of our 6 Kindergarten classes was assigned a primary or secondary color. The students cut 2-3 pictures or swatches out of a magazine for their class color and practiced glue stick skills to attach them to a large color wheel.

1st Grade Pumpkins

 Last fall my 1st graders learned about line and color mixing in this pumpkin painting project. In the first class, we talked about lines. EVERY time I teach a lesson about lines to my primary students, I draw the different kinds of lines the students think of on the board, then we all "draw" them in the air with our fingers. The added movement tends to help the students remember better. Next, I led the students in drawing a pumpkin. 

Here's the trick that we like:

1. Draw a large ellipse in the middle of your paper
2. Add a "banana" shape on one side
3. Add a "banana" to the other side so it looks like a hotdog in a bun
4. Draw the stem above the middle ellipse
5. Add another "banana" to each side

 Next, the students filled one shape at a time with a different kind of line in each and traced with crayon. We talked briefly about background then the students drew a horizontal line on each side of the pumpkin to represent the back edge of a table top. If the students still had time left, they added lines to the wall in the background and the table top.

In the second class period, I passed out trays with combinations of primary colors. First I gave each table red and yellow paint. They mixed orange and painted their pumpkin. While the students were painting with orange, I was preparing yellow and blue to be used for the stem and table. I prepped the red and blue paint while they painted green. It's a good idea to remove each tray of paint as the groups finish so they don't accidentally dip their brush into the wrong tray. Oh, and about the paint- I bought really cheap tempera, which I will never do again, but this project is the only time it not really being opaque worked in our favor. The students go to mix the liquid paint easily and still see the crayon through it.

I almost always give the students more choices than they had in this lesson. These are not the best example of creativity or artistic expression since they pretty much all look the same. But, it was good way to ensure that they really learned how to mix each secondary color and practiced at least 5 different kinds of lines. I'm telling myself that this is ok once in a while. Honestly, the students were super proud of their paintings even though they looked the same.

 

Kindergarten Butterflies

Back in the end of September/beginning of October I did a butterfly lesson with my Kindergarten students. I had recently seen two different butterfly projects that inspired me and the timing was great since the monarch butterflies were really moving through Kansas. I even took a chrysalis to school and though we missed the butterfly actually emerging, the students were really excited to see a REAL butterfly! They named her Dotty. Now back to the lesson... My project was inspired by the following lessons. One from Artsonia, and one from There's a Dragon in my Art Room and her original inspiration was from Art Project Girl.

Source: artsonia.com via Katie on Pinterest

Source: plbrown.blogspot.com via Katie on Pinterest

This was a 3 class period project and while we managed, it was a bit stressful at times. If I do this project again, (as-is, anyway) I would probably save it for 1st grade. It had a lot of good things to introduce- mixing colors, horizontal and vertical, cutting and gluing, etc., but it was a little too much for a lot of my Kindergarteners still fairly early in the year.

Class 1- Introduction to landscape, drawing a horizon line, painting blue sky and green grass. 

I projected some photos of landscapes to show the students and focused on pointing out the horizon line. I told them that the horizon line is where the sky comes alllll the way down to touch the ground. I knew that this would be a knew concept for most of them since I still have 5th graders occasionally draw the big empty space between the sky and the ground but something happened that I didn't expect. A little boy raised his hand and when I called on him he said "I don't believe you." It took me by surprise because usually younger students just eat up everything you say! As soon as he said that other students saying they didn't believe. Luckily I have some big windows in my classroom so I pulled up the blinds and had one table at a time come look outside so I could PROVE that the sky comes down to touch the ground. The rest of the first class was painting the grass and the sky.

We had to put papers on the floor to dry. I have since purchased an additional drying rack and some cheap closet shelves.

Class 2- Mixing yellow and blue paint to make green, painting phonebook pages and adding texture, mixing red and yellow to make orange, turning "B"s into butterflies.

I gave each student a half piece of yellow construction paper folded in half. I wanted to have them paint a "B" on one side that would be painted and folded to print on the other side ensuring a symmetrical butterfly. To get all the students to put their B on the correct side, I had them fold their paper "like a book". I demonstrated how to write a capital letter B and the students wrote their letter on their paper in pencil. I checked each one to make sure it was on the fold not the open side then had them open their "books." Next I showed how to paint mixed orange tempera paint inside the B, fold, and press to transfer paint to the other side. Next we mixed green paint and used texture combs that would later be turned into grass. I had painted on newspaper before but decided to try phonebooks because I always see people trying to get rid of them. It worked OK but the paper was flimsier than newspaper and curled a bit when dried. 

Class 3- Review horizontal and vertical, cutting phonebook pages into strips, gluing "grass" to background, cutting and gluing butterflies on top of grass, turning butterflies into Monarchs with black and white oil pastels, adding purple flowers with oil pastels.

 I was amazed at how many kids cut their butterflies in half (and at how many different ways they discovered to cut the butterflies in half) but I just tried to show them how to make the pieces touch when they glued them in place. I reminded the students how monarch butterflies are orange with black and white designs and if there was time, the students used oil pastels to add details to their butterflies. Then if there was STILL time, I reviewed secondary colors and the students used purple oil pastels to add flowers.

 

Student who missed the 1st class used solid blue for the background.

Stray ladybug hanging out with the butterflies.

You can view more examples in our Artsonia exhibit.

5th Grade Ndebele-Inspired Paintings

My 5th grade African-inspired Art lesson was based on painted houses in South Africa created by the Ndebele tribe. (I had to look up how to pronounce it!) The designs on the houses are so cool- definitely the most inspiring thing I came across when researching Art from Southern Africa. The houses are painted by women in the tribe and usually feature geometric shapes, bright colors, and symmetrical designs.

Source: ndebelevillage.co.za via Katie on Pinterest

I decided that the project would be creating a painting that was inspired by the house paintings. The students were to make a symmetrical design with geometric shapes and then to tie in color theory, they had to mix each secondary color and at least one tint.

Source: academic.evergreen.edu via Katie on Pinterest

THIS was the best resource I found to explain the significance and process of the traditional Ndebele house paintings. The first step in creating the designs is to divide the wall into sections by creating diagonal lines. I let the students use the straight edge of a ruler to make diagonal lines (a big "X") from corner to corner and the rest of their designs were created with black tempera paint directly on the paper. Some acted nervous about not using pencils first but once they got started, everybody just relaxed into the process.

I originally planned for this to take 2 classes (I'm always optimistic) but I had to add a 3rd. The first day was for the introduction and using black tempera paint to plan out the symmetrical geometric design. In the 2nd class, the students were given tempera paint in the primary colors and white. In the 3rd class, the students finished painting with color and then did touchups with more black tempera paint. Several finished early and had time to write artist statements about their projects:

Cole1264 says this about his/her art... I made a painting related to the Ndeble tribe with many colors. I used regular paints and geometric shapes. my art teacher told us to make them and make them imaginative. I learned how to say the name and I learned that mostly women do the painting. I think my painting is colorful and artistic. but, I think I could have used a bit more designs. I think the best part of my painting was the colors and the shapes.

Destiny2778 says this about his/her art...

I made a painting that is inspired by the people of the Ndebele tribe. my painting is a mixture of shapes, colors, and crazy designs, but I wish I didn't make so many shapes, that ws really confusing! Well... thanks for choosing my art to look at! :)

Kaelan34 says this about his/her art...

This is a painting that uses primary colors, secondary colors, and a tint color. People in the Ndebele tribe draw designs on their houses. Then they paint in the designs. Then they have a colorful house. it's pretty much what I did except on paper. This was a fun project.

I really loved this project and I think the students enjoyed it just as much as me! I'm calling it a keeper! I think it worked because the inspiration caught their attention and they were able to make personal choices within a structure. You can see more in our Artsonia exhibit.

Art Games and Secondary Colors Free-Draw

Since we only had two days of school the week of Thanksgiving, and I have a compulsion to keep all my classes on the same schedule, we didn't start any big new projects that week.

With my 3rd grade students, we went through Inside Art: An Art History Game where Trish the Fish guides you to answers about which painting you got sucked into at the Art Museum.

With my 2nd grade students, we went through A. Pintura Art Detective: The Case of Grandpa's Painting, a 1940's style detective game where you compare the mystery painting to other paintings from Art History to identify the correct artist. For both 2nd and 3rd grade, I had the students vote on the choices and I selected the link with the most votes. I did have to ask the students to close their eyes to vote so I could see what they really thought instead of looking around to see what the other students voted for.

In 1st grade, we had been talking about geometric and organic shapes. I made a PowerPoint game with images from Art History. The students all sit at tables/color groups so for that day the color groups became their teams. I cut out construction paper shapes for each color and labeled them "Orange Team" etc. and taped the paper to rulers to serve as paddles, the first team with their paddle up got to answer the question. I kept score and the winning team got to line up first at the end of class. The biggest problem with the game was teammates fighting over whose turn it was to hold the paddle and getting mad at other students for not raising the paddle fast enough. I didn't expect so much drama and everyone would have had more fun had they just chilled out. We had to stop playing the game early in one class because they were fighting with each other so much. For the rest of class they got to listen to me talk about being respectful and sharing and then sit quietly.

I had had some repeated listening/following directions/being respectful issues with one of the first grade classes so I told them we would be doing a listening activity instead of playing a game. I put them with a partner and numbered them 1's and 2's as they entered the classroom and had the 1's step outside the classroom with me. I told them that when we went back in, their partner was going to tell a story and they were to be the worst listeners they could. I told them some of the things they do when they are supposed to be listening to me- messing with supplies, talking to other students, looking at something/someone else- as suggestions. When the number 2's were telling their story, I had to turn around so they wouldn't see me laughing. Some of the students were getting very frustrated, one student was even yelling at her partner "LISTEN TO ME!" I gave them about 3 minutes to tell a story and then we had a discussion about how they felt when their partner was not listening to them. I told them why the number 1's were being awful listeners and that I, too, feel bad when people don't listen to me, especially when I am trying to teach them. For the rest of class, the students wrote sentences about why it is important to be a good listener and/or how they feel when people don't listen to them, then drew an illustration.

I made another PowerPoint game for the Kindergarten students that was all about color. At the beginning of it, I reminded them of learning about primary and secondary colors when we read Mouse Paint and had them list the colors for each category. Next I showed them the warm and cool side of the color wheel and said you can remember the difference by thinking of hot and cold on a sink or several pointed out that fire is hot and it is red and orange. I found a bunch of images from Art History and even showed some of my paintings asking them either if it used mostly primary or secondary colors or was mostly warm or cool. I think it was a great way to reinforce color theory and to introduce some new artists. Here are a few of the images I used:

Primary Colors- Piet Mondrian's Broadway Boogie Woogie, Jackson Pollock's Stenographic Figure

Secondary Colors- Edgar Degas's Four Dancers, Frida Kahlo's Self Portrait with Hummingbird and Thorn Necklace

Warm Colors- Georgia O'Keefe's Red Canna, Sandy Skoglund's The Cocktail Party,

Cool Colors- VanGogh's The Starry Night, Gustav Klimt's Sunflowers

At the end of class, I gave each student a piece of paper and let them draw whatever they wanted as long as they used the secondary color crayons I had set out in cups before class. See more in our Artsonia gallery.