Winter trees kindergarten line and value study

Kindergarten Winter Trees

I found this great idea from http://drawthelineat.blogspot.com/2012/12/value-pine-trees.html. I just added a couple of things. 

 I showed a video from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQEVllmeWH4. It is a perfect video about lines for primary grade students. It's called "The Line Song" by Scratch Garden. We then drew various lines on the board. 

I then explained to the children that we would be painting different values of green. We discussed values, shades and tints in paintings and how to make each one.

Part One. 

Part two.
 

Students folded a 12" x 9" multi media piece of paper into fourths. We painted the first box  with green paint and using a popsicle stick scratched (sgraffito) a type of line into the paint. I gave each table a paper plate of green paint to share. 

On the next box students painted it green and I went around the room and squirted white paint into their box. They were instructed to mix it to make a tint and then scratch another type of line in the box. Remember this is kindergarten! If I had green, white and black paint already on their plate, someone would use the wrong color! I also didn't have them wash their brush out each time. 

On the third box we reviewed what a shade was. Students then painted the box green and I added a bit of black paint to their box. They mixed and scratched a different kind of line in the box. Finally on the last box, they painted a darker shade of green and scratched another type of line. 

This took the whole 50 minute class period. 

On the next day I showed the students evergreen trees in the winter. We discussed the season winter and the shape of the trees. 

I instructed the students to cut their boxes and how to make triangles on the back of their papers. I provided brown construction paper squares for the tree trunks. Students then glued their papers to a 12" x 18"  piece of green construction paper. We reviewed the terms "landscape, foreground, background, and middle ground" and the placement of their trees. 

Using a white crayon, students added snow to the bottom of their trees. Students could also add snowflakes if they had time. I love this lesson. Next time I think I will have them sponge paint snow around the bottom of the trees. This part of the lesson took the whole 50 minute class period. Thanks to Jen from "Draw the Line at".