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!

Pumpkins in Chalk Pastel Complete Lesson with video, slide show, rubric, directions, & more!

My third graders rocked the pastel chalk pumpkins this year.  It is one of those classic lessons that isn't too difficult to get awesome results, but admittedly, sometimes they "get" it and sometimes they don't.

First, before I get into the actual lesson, I want to bring something to the attention of the art teachers out there.  This first pumpkin was outlined with traditional Elmer's glue.

This pumpkin below was outlined with Jot, AKA Dollar Tree glue.

Under normal circumstances, I despise the Jot because of it's glossy, and honestly, not as adherent and liquidy quality, but in this instance it is amazeballs!  I love the way that turned out.  

I have Jot in one of the schools I teach in because the students bring in supplies to donate to the art room and about 2/3rds of the kids purchase the kits where I have dictated the brands etc...and the other 1/3rd bring in rando things.  Sometimes rando things are okay.  They'll bring in amazing artist quality pastels that I would've never asked for, or super nice sketchbooks for their cubby, but sometimes you end up with Jot glue.

Back to chalk pumpkins.  I began this lesson with a slideshow where we discussed still life objects, and what makes up a still life.  I am completely honest about stealing images off the internet for my slideshows for educational purposes.

The second part of the slide show discusses analogous colors, but I usually save that until after the drawing part of our project is done.

I have been using direction pages a lot this year.  They have been great for when kids are not paying attention, kids who need a little extra help, and for the kids who are constantly asking what they are supposed to be doing.  Sorry, this one isn't the best quality.  It was before I learned I had to use a 5B pencil to write it out!  Anyway, the directions page shows the kids how to draw the pumpkin.  I draw with them too.  Like I said, the direction page just help keeps them on track.  It's not a substitute for my teaching.

As they drew the additional objects in their still life, I had little items for them to look at set out around the room.  Some kids did just take ideas from their imaginations though, which I said was OK.  I tried not dissuade them from anything Halloweeny though, simply because our art shows at both schools are in the Spring, and pumpkins will look okay, but jack-o-lanterns will look out of my place in my opinion.

Once we have our still life drawn, I have a video of me adding glue and color to my project.  It is about 5 minutes and gives those visual learners a little extra nudge to see what it is exactly we are going to be doing.



The practice coloring sheet isn't really necessary.  They could just practice on one of the pumpkins they practiced drawing. However; my kids usually practice in their sketchbooks, and it got kind of messy last year.  So, this year they practiced on this pumpkin, but I printed the rubric/assessment page on the back...and well....when I went to grade projects it was also very messy.

Timing wise, this project may have it's issues.  The gluing of the black paper has to be done the week prior to using the pastel - so if you end up with a weird time thing - I sometimes have them put a glue outline on their practice papers too.

Besides the video, I did go step-by-step through their practice page on how to mix the colors.  I walked around as they did the rest to see if there were any major issues.

As mentioned above, I had great success with this project this year!  I hope you do to!  Check out my school Artsonia galleries below.

Holy Trinity School Third Grade

Elm School Third Grade

Family Dinner - Complete Lesson with slideshow, directions, video, rubric, oh my!

For years I have taught the parts of composition to third grade with a lesson I've called "Me in the Art Room".

I mean come on, for third grade, that is some pretty accurate detail of the things happening above my cabinets.

Admittedly, I've gotten kind of sick of it. My team and I have been working on a lot of curriculum lately and someone brought up family portraits.  I remembered an old coworker making these super cute family dinner pictures 10+ years ago. 

I decided to revisit the idea and go overboard with resources.  I started the lesson with a slideshow.

I took the class through a million and twelve examples of families at dinner and had them examine the size of everyone's head, as well as where things were placed.  All of the pictures were stolen from the internet.  The slideshow took us nearly an entire class to get through.

Next, we started our drawings.  I like to put a direction page on each table.  I tell my students that we follow the directions, but our projects do not all end up looking the same.

Once we got a pretty good start on that, up to about heads and shoulders, I showed the the video of me completing the entire drawing portion.  It's kind of time-lapse so it only takes under 2 minutes.

I like to pause it on the last screen and point out a few things about proportion and scale. Plus, how I drew some of the facials features and arms.  I stress that it isn't really about drawing things realistically.

You may have noticed my use of tracers.  I made these tracers ahead of time to distribute to the students.  They are small, medium and large.  This project would work just fine having the kiddos draw their own table, and drawing their own heads.  Definitely. However, with the tracers it 1) has much higher success rate, and 2) it makes the kids really think "Who's head would be big?  Who is in the foreground?  Which one would be the smallest? etc.."  Just drawing them we might not be able to visualize their thought process.  On that note, I had one student who was brand new the day I taught this and he drew the entire family in one straight line exactly the same size. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Once their family has hair, faces, and clothes, I pass out the "What's for Dinner?" page.  I made this brainstorming page because I realized how little kids could remember about what goes on their dinner table!  Or what they ate for dinner the night before!

The next time I saw the students, I wanted to have a little review and pass out their rubrics.  I made up a review page for them to work at with their table-mates.  I drew four family dinner pictures and they had to discuss and write down what they felt was wrong with the pictures.

So, all the people are too small in this one except for the one person.  Who is an adult?  Who is a kid?  Look at how big the furniture is?






This is a common problem for the kiddos.  They want to make the people going AROUND the table.  It has to be nipped in the bud when they are tracing the heads.  Also, it is not a bird's eye view of the table, even though it seems very round.  Keep the plates ovalish.





What is the center of interest here?  The vacuum?  This was brought up in the slideshow.  What the artist wanted to draw your eye to is in in the middle ground with interesting things around it.  Here, the interesting things are spread out.





 No "horizon line to indicate where the floor starts/ends.  Is that a cabinet floating.  That guy isn't even at the table!  There is no sense of composition here!

Then, as a class we went over their rubric.

I emphasized adding a million details while we were still in our drawing phase.

Finally, kids moved on to drawing their backgrounds, tracing with Sharpies, and coloring everything.
The very last day I asked them how they could "take it a step further, and make it even better?" like it says on our rubric in the EXCEEDS column.  I asked them to think about some of the skills we learned with our last project, which happened to be pumpkins fall still life.  They caught on that I was trying to get them to remember mixing analogous colors and adding shadows.  The finished pieces I think families will truly cherish!

Middle School Christmas Ornaments in Oil Pastel - with PowerPoint and handout

This is my first year with my middle-schoolers, and I have had a rough time knowing what skills they have, and which they still really need to work on.

After our last value study project seemed like a real struggle, I thought I'd take it easy with a step-by-step guide on drawing and shading color values with Christmas ornaments.  This project is not concerned so much with the reflections of the ornaments.  We only concentrated on 3 parts: cast shadow, mid-tones, and highlight.  We also practiced building layers with our oil pastels and mixing tints and shades.  Also, I teach in a Catholic school - so Christmas ornaments are A-OKay.

I started with a handout full of stolen images from the Internet and a PowerPoint too.  We discussed the parts of light and shade that create value and the difference between grayscale and monochromatic color schemes.

The handout coincides with the slides on the PowerPoint and discusses vocabulary.
Next, I take the students step-by-step through the process of drawing and coloring and rendering their Christmas ornament in 3D. They do actually have an ornament in front of them to look at and draw.  The slides were up on the TV as the kids worked, so we mostly all stayed together, but some friends needed additional help.

      

Included in the handout is a rubric for this lesson.  Overall I am pleased with the results!  I only see my middle schoolers once a week for 45 minutes.  It was a learning process at the beginning of the year, and I felt I was never going to get through any sort of curriculum.  We've started working smaller and less independently, and that seems to work.  Here are some student works:

Victorian Architecture with Middle School - Gingerbread Houses

For my middle-schoolers architecture unit, I decided to concentrate on the Victorian era.  It's close to winter break so I've chosen our drawings to be gingerbread houses!

I've stolen some images from the Internet and put together a PowerPoint presentation to show the class.  

The PowerPoint shows images of Victorian Style gingerbread houses, and real gingerbread houses.  It also lists some of the architectural attributes of Victorian homes that I want the kids to learn.

I also made a handout with directions and key vocabulary.  It includes the rubric for this lesson as well.

Here is the first video where I show how I drew the project.  This demonstrates how they should start with simple shapes then add detail.

Here is the second video where I paint the gingerbread house with watercolor.

Your community needs an art teacher. Part III: The Pay Off

This is part three of a three part story.  Revisit Part I or Part II .

When my daughter started junior high she had to decide whether to take band or art as an elective.  I'm an art teacher, my husband's a professional musician.  Decide child!  Which parent do you love more!!?!

It wasn't really like that.  She is already very musical, and band seemed the way for her to go.  Since I was opening an art studio with after school art enrichment classes anyway, she'd hopefully get her art education gaps filled in.

The opening of No Corner Suns Art Studio coincided with this new policy in our school district.  I found the scheduling system completely unreasonable.  But, it did help convince me that our community needed quality arts education.

I took the plunge, and devoted myself to the art studio in the summer of 2015.  I maintained my philosophy that arts education is for everybody.  I developed classes for all ages and abilities and kept advertising and advocating.  I couldn't quite keep my eye off of the public school job postings though...

It's scary okay!  I just quit a job I had for nine years.  I'm making no money. We're paying for health insurance out of pocket. Paying rent for two small businesses!  Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that?  My husband is self-employed too? We have a mortgage. Three kids!  Two of them have braces! What was I thinking!?

At one point I noticed a .2 job posting for a neighboring school district.  Between running the business and my sporadic teaching schedule, it took me awhile before I actually applied - and for some reason I emailed the principal expressing my interest in the position (which - you know- I don't really want to have to talk to people...) She emailed me back almost immediately saying they were having interviews the next day! Aaahhh!  I'm not ready!  But, I pulled it together.  I was offered the job the same day my dog died.  It was such a relief.  Not the dog dying.  That was the worst.  Having that part-time job to return to in the fall in a respected school district. It eased a little of the pressure of my new life endeavor.

Over the past year and half I have maintained working super-part-time (as I like to call it) in the public school.  I haven't had one day of standing like a deranged Mona Lisa in the front of the room either.  I have also kept the art studio and maintain a pretty steady weekly schedule.  Classes and students have evolved and I have started teaching more adult enrichment, and less wine + paint.

I've also become that art teacher.  My community did need an art teacher.  When I started blasting ART CLASSES! ART CLASSES! ART CLASSES! All over town, I should've realized that even two years later, people remember.

I've become this GO-TO person for after school enrichment, mural painting, sign making, Brownie painting & pottery badges, libraries looking for unique programs, park district classes and children's events, school programs, museum functions... and more.  Most recently I was asked to teach classes at a small private school twice a week.  It was the easiest job I ever got. I'm known as this art teacher and I was asked to do a job that I actually love doing.

When I say "Your community needs an art teacher" it's because I started to think - who was doing all this stuff before I came along?  Nobody.  Honestly, until my junior high kid had to make that decision between music and art, I didn't even realize how little art my community had.  We didn't have quality after school arts classes, or wine + paint parties, or after school art club, teen nights, make-n-take art projects at our street fair, or paint parties at the park district, or real art teachers teaching library programs.  How were those Brownies earning those badges?

The pay off.  Yes, so now I am the richest and most famous and most powerfulest art teacher in all the land. Ahhh haaa haaaa haa.  Not quite. The business pays for itself; and fancy dance lessons, camps, and all those little extra things for my daughters.  Real school goes towards family expenses, but we are living off my husband's earnings. I can't recommend just quitting your job willy nilly.  The real pay off is the actual work.  I still come home physically and mentally exhausted, but it's different.  I have real pressure to advertise and sell my teaching as a business, but I also have the power to teach what I want when I want.  Sometimes I'm at the studio till 9:30pm, or on a Saturday afternoon, but there are only six kids in a class, and they are hilarious and we are learning some awesome stuff.  Sometimes there's a kid who's not hilarious, but I only have to see them an hour a week for five weeks!  Instead of a whole year, or six years!  Sometimes I have to talk on the phone *eeeewwww* or respond to email, or talk in person to other people.  Amazingly, this has been easier over the past two years.  It's almost as if repeatedly doing something over and over again makes something easier to do.  Oh yeah, and there is paperwork, insurance, taxes and bills, but there are also classes where we drink wine, and that's been a pretty good pay off too.

Your community needs an art teacher. Part II: Teach where you can, 'cause you are teaching

This is part two in a three part series. Revisit Part I

June 4th, 2014 will be a day long remembered.  It was the end of my long non-teaching teaching-streak, and it was the beginning of No Corner Suns the business.

On June 4th, 2014 I hosted my first wine + paint event.  I wrote a little about it on the blog, but more importantly, I was teaching. I was actually teaching.  Whippee!  I'm an art teacher!

I turned No Corner Suns the blog into No Corner Suns the business that year. I can't type out the proper word to describe how I remember that time.  Let me think.

Have you ever made frozen French fries?  You pull the hot cookie sheet out of the oven and put it on the stove top to cool for a bit.  You rummage around in the cabinet for a serving dish, and get ready to slide the piping hot fries off the pan.  As you reach for the spatula you snag a rogue fry on the countertop and pop it in your mouth, but that fry ain't hot, and that fry ain't cooked. You just ate a cold uncooked french fry. Your mouth is filled with little chalky, mushy, greasy potato, and your chewing, and swallowing, and spitting all at the same time.  That's the word I would use to describe that time.

If you are driving to school thinking, "Hey, maybe I'll get into a car accident and wont have to go to work!" Then you probably don't have a job you love.  The cold greasy french fry feeling of your life might be a better alternative.

It started off with getting classes hosted at our park district (yes, I had to talk to real people).  They were very eager to have programs for their guides, so that wasn't too bad- it's getting students to actually sign up for your classes that is the issue.  I got my name out there and started spreading the word. ART CLASSES!

Mid 2014 was the year that kicked my ass.  I started to teach where I could, 'cause I was teaching. Library classes? Yes! Wine + paint parties? Yes!  Private events? Yes!  Children's birthday parties? Yes!  A volunteer art booth here, there, & everywhere? Yes! Yes! Yes!  I was also determined to get my name everywhere.  I emailed every art teacher and principal in close vicinity. I passed out flyers, hung up posters,  and became a general nuisance.

I started renting a classroom.  I advertised everywhere I could (that was free) and offered classes and events for cheap.  I took every job I could manage. No wait.  I took every job.  I wasn't managing anything.

I'm smiling like a crazy person. Everything will be Allllllll right.  There's nothing creepy happening behind you.

I was still teaching in my school .75 time

I was not supporting myself doing this.  My .75 job was supporting my family, all the crazy extra teaching was supporting the business.  Furniture, rent, supplies, advertisements - everything was going back into the business. Why would I possibly be doing this?  I was actually teaching.  My days at real school were mostly miserable. My time in the studio was not.  I was hoping it would pay off at some point, I just had to hang in there.

Your community needs an art teacher. Part I: How my job made me crazy

In June of 2015 I decided to quit my "cushy" .75 art teaching job in the public school system.  I had been part-time in the same school district for eight of my nine years there and I wasn't going to get tenure.  As part of every art teacher's unwritten job description, I had worked constantly to advocate for my program and it just wasn't doing anything.  I was tired. My time there was done.

I didn't just walk into the principal's office and decide to quit. It had been on my mind and in the works for over a year, and it wasn't easy.

Do you have those days when you are at school and you've prepped this pretty cool lesson that maybe you've taught before, or maybe is new and you are kind of excited about. The kids start to file in, and your smiling and greeting them, because you know to make that personal connection and it's fun to see them. But then, one kid is pushing another kid, and they start chasing each other around the table, and there goes a kid over by your desk for no reason, and they all start talking, and one kid is sitting in the wrong seat, so another kid starts to push the kid who is in their seat, and you walk over to deal with that, meanwhile another kid is on the floor crawling under the tables, and another kid is grabbing crayons and moving piles of supplies and finally your like "what the hell?"  Yeah.

So, the kids go back in the hall and you practice lining up quietly and you talk about tip toeing like mice and sitting like the Mona Lisa and looking for ready tables and keeping hands to ourselves and not touching supplies and smiling at Mrs. Kostal and... one kid pushes another kid who bumps into another kid who steps on another kid but they manage to sit down but they are still talking or touching supplies or making noise.  Your standing in front of the room looking like a maniac with your hands folded and a deranged smile on your face modeling the Mona Lisa again thinking "what the hell?" Yeah.

So, you kind of wait and wonder if you should go back in the hall or start with kind of a clap or a loud "ALLLLllllll RIIIiiiiighhhhhht CLLAAAasssss."  Your still standing there with the deranged smile on your face when one kid starts shushing everyone. Not a nice shushing either.  A loud, obnoxious, oh my goodness, way worse than the talking shushing, shushing.  Another kid yells, "SHE'S WAITING!" and although you are waiting, that's not helping, and you now realize you've lost complete control.  You're still gripping your hands in front of you in the polite Mona Lisa fold, but now the skin underneath each fingertip has turned white, and there are actual nail marks forming in the top layer of skin.  The deranged smile has definitely morphed into a clenched mouth and your nostrils are flared.  Yeah.

Almost every class, almost every day.  I'm not a new teacher.  I know when I've lost control of a class, and I know what I have to do get it back.  I know when I'm actually teaching, and when I'm just controlling an environment.  I know when my kids are learning too.  I also know that teachers can't do it alone.  I was coming home physically and mentally exhausted every stinkin' day and I hadn't felt like I had actual taught in a long time.

I had only been in my old school district one year when I first tried to get out.  I was teaching at three schools, one was art-on-a-cart, one had a principal who made the special area teachers sit at a child size table during a staff meeting, and one had a passive aggressive secretary.  However, the window for getting a new teaching job is kind of small, and art postings are slim.  Bonus however- I'd need a maternity leave my second year so I stayed, and finagled part time and two schools. Although, without some headache. A certain principal wanted me to teach the same exact amount for .75 time.  I started trying to get out again four or five years later.  I would start looking in February.  I would religiously stalk all the nearby school districts websites looking for postings.  Did I even want to BE a teacher?  What if I never got a new job?  What if I'm stuck here forever?  What else could I do?

I contemplated switching careers all together. Could I do graphic design?  Should I try getting into illustration?  I took a design class at our community college, and eh... I started trying to build up an illustration portfolio. eh. I decided to start on my masters degree. Luckily the program in curriculum and instruction fell through and I ended up getting my MA in art ed.  I don't know.  I love art.  I love making art. I'm just meant to teach it, even though my situation was driving me insane.

I had to take the bull by the horns and change the situation.  I couldn't keep letting year after year pass without it getting any better.  I started thinking of places besides a school where I could teach.  The park district, the library, after school programs.... Ughhhhh that seems hard. I wouldn't have a classroom, I'd be lugging around supplies, I'd have to advertise, I'd have to talk to people...

I kept not doing that.  At some point though, I did that.

This was the email I got from the administration office on my last day of work.  I had worked in the district for nine years. I wasn't expecting a love note, but geez... a little cold.

No Fail Acrylic Painting on Canvas. It was fun! Was it Art?

I held a special Modern Art Masterpiece Class at No Corner Suns Art Studio on MLK day.  I had seen this little idea on Pinterest.  Using masking tape to mask off a canvas, and painting over it, and thought that would be a fun thing to try.

A fun thing to try...  yes.  But is it art?

Isn't that the real struggle?  I want my studio to be a learning place, yet I want to appeal to the masses too.  What I've learned is that I can have it both ways.  It is a matter of finding FUN and SUCCESSFUL lessons that do actually teach something.  No matter the age.

This little class began with a discussion of Modernism to an extent.  We looked at some Mondrian, and Miro.  We talked about horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines too.  Once everything was taped off, we got only the primary colors and spent a lot of time mixing, mixing, mixing!  Then we painted.  It was one hour, it was fun, and look at those faces!  It was successful.

How do you feel about themed art classes? Is The Fine Art of Harry Potter fine art?

Things that I love, like Star Wars, Dr. Who, Harry Potter, Cat Memes, and Jurassic Park just don't get much attention with the K-5th grade set.  I have in the past taught a meme project to 4th & 5th grade, and we used Dr. Who during our van Gogh unit in 5th, and I'm always quoting Star Wars...

None of this impacts my students with as much enthusiasm as it does me.  No one laughs when I say "I have a bad feeling about this..." and no one understands my terrified face when their water cups start to tremble.

I started coming up with themed classes and events for teens that come to my art studio.  I started Fandom Friday in the Fall and it has been very popular. I recently tried adding themes to more of my classes that teach outside of school with varying success.

I just wrapped up a three week class called The Fine Art of Harry Potter.  I planned the mini-curriculum to include headmaster portraits, wand-making, and mini-figure construction.

We began with headmaster portraits.  We looked at various portraits found on the Harry Potter wiki.  I equated them to portraits painted by Rembrandt and during the Renaissance.  We learned how paint with acrylics, mix colors, and generally use our imaginations.

Our second project was Wand Making!!  This was fun.  We used dowel rods and model magic.  We looked at some of the famous wands of the wizarding world.  We were inspired by those, but ultimately designed our own.  Very fun!  Teens love Model Magic.

View the Flickr album to see some pix.

Purple Palaces at the Park District

I just wrapped up an Art Smart class through my local park district.  Kids ranged in age from PreK-2nd.  It was a lot of fun and a cute little group of artists!  On our last day we talked about architecture.  We studied onion domes and pattern and looked at photos of St. Basils and the Taj Mahal.  Then, we designed a purple palace for a prince who loves pattern... and onion domes.  They were so cute.

Kindergarten Mondrian Paintings with Black tape and tempera cakes!

I see kindergarten at the very end of the day for one hour.  It's already February, and it is still a struggle.

However, they really took to Mondrian!  We looked at some of his paintings and watched this cute little YouTube video:

Next, I passed out the black masking tape and let the kids start to build shapes with the straight black lines.  This took them about 40 minutes.  They were doing an excellent job and were very careful with the tape and scissors.

We used Primary Colored Tempera Cakes the next hour to paint in our shapes.  Almost immediately they started mixing - which as far as Mondrian is concerned - is just terrible.  As far as a kindergarten art teacher is concerned - it was fantastic!  "I made Green!"  "How did you make violet?"  "My yellow looks brown!!"  It was fun, and I do not think it diminished the finished product at all.

In the beginning there was red, yellow, & blue.