Texture Hunt

Last week my student teacher wanted to do a texture exercise with 3rd graders to lead in to her next lesson. We were thinking about taking the students outside to find nature textures in the courtyard, but the grass was soaking wet. Luckily, there was a plethora of texture on the playground! I never thought about all the textures we would find there before that morning. We called the lesson a "Texture Hunt" and Miss Bennett showed the students how to collect the textures and create a nonobjective composition, thinking about what textures they were putting where, and how they created new textures when overlapped. 

Playground Texture Composition

Discovering texture on the bottom of the swings.

I created a grid and filled each space with textures for reference later. I could have filled several more papers.

I knew the students would enjoy having Art class outside, but I was surprised by how much they got in to finding textures. They were experimenting and discovering and collaborating. We did have to remind a couple students that it wasn't recess time, but overall, they did very well.

It was kind of a gloomy day last Friday so our 3rd graders that day found textures in the Art room. We did put out a few rubbing plates but the students found several textures that were already in the Art room.

1st Grade Colorful Fish

This is my last beginning of the year fish project!  1st grade students drew a fish- I gave no instruction here except to fill the space by drawing a fish at least as big as their hand- then traced their lines with glue and sprinkled with sand.  I told the students we were adding sand to give our fish more texture.  In the second class, we reviewed color mixing and I gave each student primary and black colored tempera paint.  The students could paint their fish and backgrounds however they wanted.  I did not say that their fish had to be swimming in blue water though that is what most students chose.  After the first day, I started giving the student black paint but said it should only be used to paint over the raised sand surface and help us see the outline and details of the fish.  I've found that giving students black paint to mix colors tends to yield monochromatic paintings- usually all a nice mud color.  (By the way, if you want to see some awesome high school mud paintings, look here!)

Classes who only had one session and students who missed the first day of the project painted then added sand if there was time at the end.  My main goal for the project was to review painting and mixing colors- texture was my secondary goal.

Do your students love mixing colors as much as mine?  Green, pink, and "sky blue" seem to be their favorite colors to mix.  I love to listen to the students talk when they are mixing colors.  Even though they've done it before, it still seems like magic to them when they make a new color whether they are in 1st grade or 6th grade.  I love their excitement when they are allowed to just try new combinations and see what happens.

I think this looks like a Mondrian fish!

Check out the rest of the artwork in our Artsonia exhibit!