Abstract after Kandinsky - First Grade Lesson with video and printable directions!

I enjoy teaching about Wassily Kandinsky's art mostly because I like to play Flight of the Valkyries for the first graders and kind of scare them a little. I read that Wagner was a favorite composer of Kandinsky's, so I go with it.
 I also like the kids to pretend like they have synesthesia to an extent.  I want them to learn about lines, line qualities, shapes, and colors.  I don't actually care if they "feel" the music in a classroom setting of 23 first graders, or I'd end up with 23 scribble scrabbled brown and green "masterpieces".  Not my jam. Feel the music at home, kid.
I like to show the Mati and Dada Video about Kandinsky to start off the lesson.  Most of these videos are pretty great because they show just enough information to keep the kids entertained and then end.  Whoever decided 7 minutes was enough art history in cartoon form was a genius. If you watch these on YouTube, definitely bring the link over to ViewPure though.  These videos are cluttered with pop ups!!  Also, if you've watched nearly all of them like I have, there is a formula that they follow that the kids haven't picked up onto yet.  Literally the same thing happens in every episode with a different artist, different media.... anyway.

This year I made my OWN little video demonstration of the entire lesson.  I make goofy voices. It's how I teach.  If you want to see the whole lesson in action:

When I do actually start to teach the lesson, as mentioned above, there are some limitations.  Even so, no two projects look the same, and the kids are still learning what I'm trying to teach.  There is also a direction sheet for this lesson.  Direction sheets are great for students to see what they are supposed to be doing, and what is coming next.  It is not a step-by-step-do-it-this-way-or-the-highway page, it is just additional guidance.  Plus, when you get kids saying "what am I supposed to do now?"  You can say, "Read the directions!"

This lesson ended up being spread out over several weeks for my class because of holidays and field trips.  To review the information I showed the class a video of someone reading the book "The Noisy Paint Box."  It is cute and gives some nice information about Kandinsky's life, work, and inspirations.

Here are some pictures from my friends painting on day one:

I was a little nervous on our last day when I passed out the black oil pastels for our super black-thick-black-outlines.  I was suddenly seeing little black finger prints all over the place. However, I needn't worry.  I started hearing music as I photographed the finished pieces!  

See the rest in our Artsonia Gallery!

Alma Thomas Radial Design Rainbows with Slideshow and Directions

First grade learned about the color spectrum and the colors of the rainbow by looking at the art of Alma Thomas. I started by sharing this little slideshow about the artist and her art. We discussed her color paintings and specifically what colors she used, and sometimes what colors she used them in. We started our own Alma Thomas inspired rainbow collage with construction paper. To mix it up a little bit, I told them they could start in the middle with one square, like it says on the directions... but it didn't have to be red. For whatever reason this made the place go bonkers. I said if they didn't feel comfortable mixing it up, they should use red, but if they were up to a challenge they could use a different color. It was a sneaky way to differentiate. Then on the board I wrote:

Roy G. Biv   and we talked about what each one of those initials meant.

Then I wrote:
Oyg B. Ivr
Ygb I. Vro
Gbi V. Roy
Biv R. Oyg
Ivr O. Ygb
Vro Y. Gbi

The pressure was on doing that in front of a bunch of 6 & 7 year olds and not making a mistake.  I did in fact make a mistake and a kid caught it.

The students just had to look at the rainbow order that they actually started with to complete the rest of their collage.  I had the strips of paper up front in traditional rainbow order as well to help them.

Here is the link to my artsonia gallery for this project. And here are some great ones!