rainbow order star kindergarten art lesson

Kindergarten Rainbow Star art lesson

I saw this lesson on Jamestown elementary Art Blog: Kindergarten rainbow order star. I just added another step. First we discussed the colors of the rainbow and viewed ROY G BIV by Mr. Ray on YouTube. The children loved the catchy tune and were singing it the rest of the class period!

I then taught them how to draw a star on a 6" x 18" watercolor paper. We reviewed various lines and students picked six lines of various designs and drew them with a black oil pastel across their page, starting at the star. They then colored the star in and drew a squiggly line in the middle of it. Students could add smaller stars on the other side.

Students then colored in the sections the order of the rainbow with crayons. I didn't have the students use indigo because I felt it would be frustrating trying to find one for each student. They could use purple or violet for the last section. Many kindergartners at my school know their color words by now so they were able to read the labels to find orange, red, purple etc.

 The last step was to paint watercolors over the drawing.

This is my teaching video I showed during COVID. 

1st grade Charles Demuth inspired painting

1st Grade Charles Demuth Inspired Painting

1st graders viewed the art of Charles Demuth. We discussed the meaning of his painting I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold. His inspiration for the painting was of a poem by William Carlos Williams of a fire truck raising down the street.

This was also a good review of their social studies standard from kindergarten of what a community helper is and how fire fighters help us. 

Students were instructed to pick a number and sketch it out on their 12" x 9" multi media paper. I then demonstrated how to make it into a bubble number. I was disappointed how many of the students picked the number seven (their age!). 

      Students then took a ruler and drew lines across the number and then divided them into sections. 

Students then drew some smaller numbers in the boxes and some random geometric shapes. They were to also create a pattern on the bubble number. 

They traced over the lines with a fine tip permanent marker. 

1st graders then painted the numbers with warm colors and then they were instructed to paint the background with cool colors. 

1st grade Heather Galler folk art landscapes and pattern lesson

Students learned about the folk  and contemporary artist Heather Galler. I found this idea on http://paintedpaperintheartroom.blogspot.com, Heather Galler has a great slide show on You tube. They loved her bright colors and the music that was set to the slide show. We discussed how she used patterns in her paintings and the difference between landscapes, portraits and still life's. We looked around the room and on our friends clothes for patterns as well as viewing patterns in nature.
We then set to work! We drew a ground line and then proceeded to take a ruler and divide our land into sections. On each section we drew patterns. The next step was to draw buildings, trees, bushes etc.

                                        

We then outlined everything in a fine tip permanent marker and colored the buildings and patterns with construction paper crayons. 

                                             

                                                                                                                    

               

When everything was colored we painted watercolors over the whole thing. This lesson took about three, 50 minute class periods. 

                                        

                                  

                                        

                                            

I believe this was one of their favorite lessons!

                                                 

They are always so proud of their work! Thanks Heather Galler for the inspiration! 

1st grade Kandinsky's concentric circles

Kandinsky 1st grade lesson

My first graders really loved this lesson. We first viewed Kandinsky's Concentric Circles painting and discussed what feelings he may have had while painting this. I explain to the children that he was influenced a great deal by music and many of his paintings that he thought were good were named like a piece of music. 

"The Noisy Paint Box" is a great book to read to your students if you have time. 

I showed the students how to fold their 12" x 18" watercolor paper into eight sections. We then reviewed colors and what colors we thought we might use when we heard fast and slow music. 

I then played various classical music tunes and the children were then to pick what oil pastel colors they felt fit the music while listening.  They were to start with a small circle and then change colors as they went around it. 

On the second day students blended sections of their circles and then picked bright watercolors to paint over them. 

The paintings were stunning and it was a great way to connect classical music to visual arts! 

Stuart Davis inspired city lesson kindergarten

Kindergarten art lesson 

Stuart Davis Inspired City 

I found this idea on the blog, kids-finelines.blogspot.com. Being a former kindergarten teacher I found a great book to go along with the lesson. I read the book "City Sounds" by Rebecca Emberley.  We talked about the text in the story and all the sounds a city can make. I then showed the art of Stuart Davis and we discussed how he also put text in his paintings.

This took two, 50 minute class periods. The first day I handed out the roads and the students added lines down the middle. They then added rectangles for buildings and added doors and windows.

On day two, we added another building, made cars and more details to the buildings. I printed circles on construction paper so it made it easier for the children to cut them out. Finely I gave them a strip of sound words for them to cut and glue onto their collage. We sounded out the words and then they determined where to put them. This was a good time to review the book and what kind of sounds the author used in her story.   

Kindergarten Paul Klee cats

Paul Klee kindergarten watercolor cats

I found this idea from http://www.artsonia.com. I showed my kindergartners the bird and cat painting by Paul Klee and told them that it was our inspiration for our next project. I gave a brief history on Paul Klee and then we proceeded with the drawing. There are some great children books on Paul Klee if you have time to read them to your class. 

                                                    

 

                                      This is the inspiration painting for the project by Paul Klee. 

I provided each student with a 9" x 12" piece of watercolor paper. I instructed them on how to draw the cat, eyes, nose, bird, neck and whiskers.

We then traced the cat and bird with a black oil pastel. 

Next we painted the whole thing with watercolors. They were told only to use the bright colors. This took about two 50 minute class periods.