Paul Klee 3rd grade bleeding tissue paper collage

 Paul Klee 3rd grade art lesson

My 3rd graders had so much fun with this assignment. Students are learning about ocean life in their classrooms, so this was a perfect lesson to accompany their unit. We viewed the many works of Paul Klee, with emphasis on his paintings with squares of color. Students divided their paper in half with the top being the sky and land and the ocean at the bottom. 

 

After they drew their ocean scene students traced over it with a black marker. Students were to use warm-colored bleeding tissue paper squares for the top of their drawings and cool colors for the ocean part. They wetted the top part with water, laid tissue paper squares on top then painted water on it again. 

 After they were dry I helped shake the squares off into the trash can. They loved this lesson! 

Paul Klee cities 1st grade art lesson

Paul Klee cities

I based this art lesson on Paul Klee's "Castle and Sun" painting. 

We discussed his many abstract paintings and his personal life. He was a great father and made puppets with his son. I had the pleasure of visiting the Paul Klee museum in Switzerland over the summer. 

I also have several children books about the artist in my classroom library for the students to enjoy when they are finished with their work. 

 On the first day I provided sponges soaked in black paint. I can keep these all year and use them often. Students took pieces of cardboard and printed their castle or building on a 12" x 9" multi-media paper.

Everyone was successful! 

On the second day students traced a lid for their sun and outlined it in a black permanent marker. 

We talked about what color combination we could use such as warm colors, cool colors or multi-colors. 

We used Crayola's neon oil pastels. I bought these bins from Blick art supplies. I wish I had seen these earlier. They are perfect. So far the kids have kept them organized!!!

The students loved this art project!

Paul Klee 1st grade art warm and cool colors lesson

Paul Klee warm and cool color portraits

I have three books on the artist Paul Klee. I didn't read them to the students , but they are in my art library for the students to look at when they are finished with their artwork. I did discuss Paul Klee's life and showed students his art. 

Our inspiration for the project was his Senecio painting. Click on this link to see the painting http://www.paulklee.net/senecio.jsp. On YouTube Art with Mati and Dada they have a  seven minute video about his life as well. It is very age appropriate. I have done this project for years so I don't know where the original idea came from.
I gave each student a circle to trace in the middle of their paper and then they were to draw a face, neck and shoulders. It could be a self portrait (with no hair) or just a person. They then had to pick either warm or cool colored bleeding tissue paper, paint their paper with water and then lay the tissue paper on top.

After they were dry they picked the papers off.

This project took two,  fifty  minute class periods.

Kindergarten Paul klee cats with warm and cool colors

Kindergarten Paul Klee Cats

I found this great idea from http://jamestownelementaryartblog.blogspot.com/2015/10/kindergarten-paul-klee-cats.html
Please check out the original idea.
I first introduced the lesson by discussing warm and cool colors. We created a Venn Diagram on the board and I had students take turns sorting warm and cool colored  pieces of art.

I then read the book "The Cat and the Bird" by Geraldine Elshner.

 This took about 40 minutes.
I then instructed them on how to draw a cat in the style of Paul Klee.
On day two (my classes are 50 minutes each), we drew a line with a cool colored marker (students could pick any kind of line). Students traced their cats with a black fine tip  marker.
My kindergartners were encouraged to use the side of a crayon and color the background with a cool color.

Students could only use cool colors to color the collar and warm colors for the cat. 

I was surprised with the results. It helps to do this in the Fall or Winter! My kindergartners can do so much more by then!