2nd Grade- Abstract Circle Painting!

For our color unit, second grade focused on secondary colors. The students began the unit by viewing a PowerPoint on color and filling out a color wheel. The next day the students got a large sheet of heavy drawing paper and were instructed to draw 5 circles of any size. They then had to draw 5 more circles around each if the circles they had just drawn, overlapping sometimes. The rest of the classes they painted in the shapes made by the circles with the secondary colors. I only gave them the primary colors so they had to mix their own secondary colors to use. 

1st Grade- Mondrian and Primary Colors!

I focused on the primary colors with first grade. So naturally, Mondrian was the perfect artist to look at. It also was a project that simple enough for all students to be successful and still look very great. 

We started the lesson by talking about Mondrian and looking at his artwork. Then the students used masking tape to tape down lines on their papers. We focused on using just vertical and horizontal lines. The next class the students painted in the squares with the primary colors and black. The last class was spent slowly and carefully pulling off the tape to create crisp clean edges.

4th Grade- Tints and Shades Cities!

This lesson focused on value and color. The students first learned about value and did a value scale with a colored pencil. The students then had a color theory lesson. We focused on tints and shades and I explained that tints and shades were how artists show value with paint.

On the first day of the lesson, the students drew 5 simple lines across their papers to represent the tops of city buildings. Then the students had to choose a color to paint their cities. They added black to make shades and white to make tints. They had to go from darkest at the bottom to lightest at the top. 

Kindergarten- Self-portraits with Emotion!

One of the kindergarten standards relates to emotions. We actually began this lesson with a little color theory introduction. I had 6 clear plastic cups filled with water and we used food color to mix the primary colors. It was such a visual way to see color mixing and the kids LOVED it! They were jumping up and down with excitement! I also read the book Color Dance to them as well.

The next day we talked about emotions. I had them make faces to show the different emotions. I then drew a face on the board step by step and had the kids draw along with me on their papers. I left the mouth and the eyebrows off. We then discussed how our eyebrows and mouths change with each emotion we show. I drew and example on the board of each emotion as we talked about them. 

The kids then chose an emotion for their drawing and finished their faces, adding hair and clothes to make it look like them. I explained that they were making a self-portrait. 

The next day we talked about how different colors show different emotions. The students then painted their portraits with watercolor to match their emotions!

3rd Grade- Warm and Cool Hand Designs!

I am way behind on posting projects! I have been so busy, but I plan on getting caught up with the posting this week!

This project was for 3rd grade, who were learning about color at the time. We started the color unit out by viewing a PowerPoint on color and filling out a color wheel. We foucused on warm and cool colors in third grade. For the first step of this drawing, the students traced their hands on their papers. They then were instructed to draw a small circle somewhere on their paper and then draw more circles, going off the paper when they reached the edges. I told them to work as neatly as possible so the circles wouldn't look sloppy.

The next step was painting. We reviewed the warm and cool colors and wrote them on the board before beginning. The students were allowed to choose which part of their drawing would be warm colors and which would be cool colors. They were instructed to paint neatly in the lines and rotate the colors in a pattern for the warm/cool parts. They turned out pretty neat and colorful!