03 November - Rhythm Print

3rd Grade

Objectives: 

To begin a discussion on rhythm in art. 

To create clay counter relief sculpture which illustrates visual rhythm.

Materials: 

salt dough 

mat or wax paper

rollers for clay 

plastic knives 

small natural and man made objects with a variety of textures (shells, buttons,netting, twigs, leaves, legos, seeds, etc.

Procedure:

- begin lesson with 5 minutes of free experimentation with materials. Each

student should have enough clay/dough to be able to roll into a slab of at least

5”by 8”, a mat, a dowel roller, and access to a range of objects.

- Discuss what rhythm means in art. Display art samples with random and

regular rhythms, and discuss. Have students try to clap rhythms in these

works.

ø¤o°`°oo¤ø, ̧,ø¤o°`°o¤ø, ̧,ø¤o°`°o¤ø, ̧,ø¤o°`°o¤ø, ̧,ø¤o°`°o¤ø, ̧,ø¤o°`°o¤ø, ̧,ø¤o°`°o¤ø,  ̧,ø¤o°`°o¤ø, ̧,ø¤o°`°o¤ø, ̧,ø¤o°`°o¤ø, ̧,ø¤o°`°o¤ø, ̧,ø¤o°

Rhythm - A visual tempo or beat. The principle of design that refers to

a regular repetition of elements of art to produce the look and feel of movement. It is often achieved through the careful placement of repeated components which invite the viewer's eye to jump rapidly or glide smoothly

from one to the next. In any artwork, it is possible to distinguish between rhythm of color, line, and

form. In the continuity of the three comes the whole rhythm of that work.

*** This is a very difficult concept, and most likely students will focus on pattern which is not the same thing. That's ok- sometimes we expose kids to something so that it might spark some understanding in the future, even if they can't grasp it at the time.This work by Matisse is an example of a flowing rhythm.

A regular rhythm occurs when the intervals between the elements, and often the elements themselves, are similar in size or length. [http://www.digital- web.com/articles/principles_of_design/]

Look at two paintings with examples of repeated objects. Ask students to find the objects that are repeated to create rhythm. How does the positioning of the objects make your eyes move around the paintings?

Art works can have random rhythm: has motifs that appear in no apparent order with irregular spaces in between. or regular rhythm: identical motifs and equal amount of space between them. Display art samples with random and regular rhythms, and discuss.

-Explain to students that they will be creating a sculpture with rhythm. They can use space, line, and form to create visual rhythm.

- First they need to roll out clay into a slab of at least 3⁄4 inch depth. Then they will use objects to create

a regular rhythm

-next they should re-smooth surface and create a more random rhythm, for example repeating motifs, but not having them at regular intervals, or have different motifs following the same line, so there's rhythm but not regularity.

- finally, they will re-smooth their clay and create their end product. They may create whatever kind of rhythm they desire on the surface of their slab. Students may use plastic knives to trim the edges of their slab

-wrap up: Students may show work and describe how they created visual rhythm. 
-clean up

01 September - Color Wheel

Kindergarten

Materials:

tag board color wheel with primary and secondary color names written in

magazines

scissors

glue and glue brushes

Books: Color dance, Mouse paint

This lesson is about introducing the kids to colors, the primary and secondary colors and color mixing.

Discussion:

1. With the kids sitting on the rug, tell the kids we are going to talk about color and asked them what there favorite colors are. They come up with great answers; Caribbean Blue, Lime green…Then you can read the book “Color dance”

2. Then write red, blue, yellow on the board and asked what is special about those colors - . you can make all the other colors by mixing them - called primary colors.

3. Ask what blue - yellow, red - yellow, and blue-red make. Ask if anyone knows what these colors are called. - secondary colors. One boy said his favorite color was yellowy-orange so we talked about how to mix that- yellow and red to make orange and then a little more yellow.

4. Show them the tagboard color wheel. Tell them each table will be working together to make one color wheel. Demonstrate how to look for a color in a magazine, rip or cut out a color from a magazine, decide where it goes and glue it on. Go over the names of the colors - most of the kids can’t read yet. Tell the kids to rip or cut out big pieces of color. It doesn’t matter if there is writing or other images on it too.Tell them to try to fill in the entire pie piece with its color. Use liquid glue in cups with glue brushes.

Project:

1. Have teacher dismiss kids to tables about 4 kids per table.

2. If some tables finish before others, they can come back to the rug and someone can read “Mouse Paint. After reading “Mouse Paint” I asked the kids questions about color mixing like, If you were a white mouse trying to hide from the cat and you ran into an orange room but all you had was red, blue and yellow paint, what could you do?

3. When everyone is finished, you can tape the color wheels to the board and ask the kids if anyone wants to come up and talked about their color wheel.

They usually have great things to say: One girl said she put brown in the middle of the color wheel because she thought if she mixed all the colors it would be brown. One girl found Caribbean Blue and pointed it out on her color wheel. One boy named his a rainbow wheel and put a rainbow in the middle.

January - Bubble Wrap Printing

Kindergarten

Materials:

tablecloths to protect tables

brayers and brushes

paper plates

acrylic sheets

bubble wrap: one piece about the size of the paper, smaller pieces cut into shapes; triangle, circle etc.

tempera paint

paper

Books: Little Blue, Little Yellow

Preparation:

Cover tables with table cloths

put a paper sized piece of bubble wrap at each desk

put yellow paint on acrylic sheets (1 per table) and brayers (2 per table) on tables

prepare cups of red, yellow and blue tempera paint

Discussion:

1. With the kids seated on the rug talk about colors. Review what they learned during last months lesson: ask them if the know what is special about red, yellow, blue - you can use them to mix all other colors. What blue and yellow make, etc. What the colors red, yellow and blue are called - primary colors. You can explain that green, purple and orange are called secondary colors.

2. Tell the students they will be printing today. Tell them there are a lot of different ways to do printmaking. Tell them an advantage to printing is that you can repeat images. Point this out as you demonstrate the process.

3. Demonstrate the entire process. Introduce them to the brayer (rhymes with slayer). Tell them that is used for spreading the paint evenly along a surface. I made a big deal about not popping the bubbles - I told them the funniest part is trying to do it without popping.... No one really popped.

4. While you are demonstrating, you can also bring up the texture that the bubble wrap print makes. Ask the students if they know what texture means: they way something feels or looks like it feels.

5. Then have the teacher dismiss the kids in small groups to the chairs.

Process:

1. Have students use the brayer to cover the bubble wrap on the table with yellow paint. I had them raise their hands when they were finished rolling the yellow paint and were ready for the paper. It helps to have one parent bring paper, one take away the yellow bubble wrap when they finished with step 

2. Press paper on top.

3. Peel away paper.

4. If possible have another parent volunteer pass out bubble wrap shapes, paint and clean brushes. I would strongly recommend passing out one color first and then when they are finished the next.

5. Have them brush the new color of paint on and use it as a stamp.

6. When they are finished with red and blue, pass out paper plates and have them mix the two colors to make purple and print.

7. Pass out yellow. Have them mix yellow-red and yellow blue

8. Encourage them to fill the page.

Most kids got done way before the hour was over so we had them wash their hands (some need help with this) and then come to the rug where a parent or the teacher can read a book (Little Blue, Little Yellow) until everyone is ready to go.

03 November - Thick and Thin lines

Kindergarten

Discussion

1. Look at Native American Blanket poster or “10 Little Rabbits” book. Talk about how native americans made blankets with lines, they were inspired by what they saw in nature, where are lines in nature? where are lines in the room? where do you see thick lines, thin lines? A thick line is wide. A thin line is narrow.

2. Native American artists get ideas from nature. What things have you seen in nature that look like the lines on the blankets? Find thick and thin lines on the walls and floor of the classroom. Optional: Have students stand and line up. Form a thin line, next a thick line.

3. Talk about symmetry - if you fold the blankets the same patterns are on each side.

4. Tell students they will be designing their own blankets.

5. explain (show) horizontal and vertical, tell the kids they wil place their paper horizontally

6. Demonstrate how to fold paper in half, make thick/thin lines with oil pastels.

7. Ask students if they notice that if you fold the blankets in half the same lines are on each side. Explain that this means they are symmetrical. Demonstrate how to make symmetrical designs

8. Show kids the print out of the blanket with animals and triangles on it - tell them they can add zig zag lines and other designs.

9. Tell kids they can add a fringe to the ends of their blankets. Demonstrate how to cut the fringe and glue onto paper.

Project

1. Dismiss kids to tables

5. Have the kids fold the paper in half (corners together and push down - they need help with this)

7. pass out oil pastels and have kids do a thick or thin line on the middle fold

8. Tell kids to draw lines on one side of the fold and then the same lines on the other side, then add designs.

11 pass out paper strips, scissors and glue sticks and show them how to cut a strip and glue it on the edge of the paper

12 you can have the ones that finish first come back to the rug and someone can read the "10 Little Rabbits" book

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March - Fish in Water

Materials:

blue paper

orange paper

white and yellow paint or yellow oil pastel

brushes

perm. markers

streamers (optional)

Books: Fish is Fish, Swimmy

Process:

1. Talk to the kids about the movement of water. Ask them where they see water - ocean, waterfall, jacuzzi….Each student gets a streamer to help them pretend they were drops of water. Tell them they are calm water, they were moving water, or falling in a waterfall.

2. Then tell them to use the same movement to create the water on their paper. Use white paint on blue paper.

3. While that dries, talk about the parts of a fish - you could also read one of the books at this time. Identify many shapes that students can use to make the different parts of a fish. Tell them to draw one big fish on their paper. If the have room they can draw more. Draw with perm. marker.

4. Add details with yellow paint (or to save time oil pastel)

5. Have students cut the fish out and glued them on to the blue paper.

6. If some students are finished before others you can read to them on the rug.

05 January - Recycled Clouds - Kindergarten

Objectives:

- introduce students to tints (color plus white)

- encourage students to really look at things (clouds come in all different shapes and aren't all white)

- introduce students to relief sculpture

- give kids opportunity to experiment with and create something out of different materials

Materials:

recycled objects such as bottle caps, tape spools, soda tabs, beads, string, toilet paper rolls, bubble wrap…

thin cardboard from cereal boxes or waffles

glue

paint

markers

Cloud books

Discussion:

1. Talk about the lines and shapes you can see in different kinds of clouds. You can also talk about the color of clouds and how you can always see more than one color in a cloud. Clouds often appear white (but are usually not JUST white) sometimes they are gray (white mixed with black) sometimes at sunset they are white mixes with yellow or red or orange, sometimes they look like white mixed with blue. Tell the kids if you mix white with a color its called a tint.

You can tell the kids they will be making relief sculptures of clouds (you can explain that a relief sculpture is a sculpture that you can’t walk all the way around.

2. Tell the kids they will be making clouds today. Demonstrate drawing a big cloud on the cardboard and then cut it out.This is a hard task but let the students own the process. Tell them it doesn't matter about the clouds looking "perfect" because every cloud is different.

Project

1. Dismiss kids to tables

1. Have students draw a large cloud on the unprinted side of the cardboard with sharpie. make sure they draw big (about half of a regular sheet of paper)

2. Have the students cut out the cloud. Have them write their names with Sharpie on the back.

3. Have students attach the recycled materials to the cardboard clouds with glue. When they have finished cutting you can pass out the materials and glue (put glue in the low trays so kids can dip the bottle caps into the glue and then on the cardboard)

4. We want to give the clouds a few minutes to dry so have the kids come back to the rug to read one of the cloud books. Then talk about how a tint is any color mixed with white. When we mix colors we start with the light color and add little bits of the darker color until we are happy with the color we mixed. You can demonstrate this. Tell kids to pick one or two colors we see in clouds besides white (like yellow, orange, pink, purple, and blue at sunset, grey on an overcast day, black for storm clouds, etc.).

5. Kids can go back to their desks - pass out a paper plate with white paint to every kid. Someone can go around and ask them what one other color they would like to mix with white and add that to the paper plate. give them a small drop of that color paint.

6. Kids mix their paint and paint the cloud

7. You can read the other cloud book to the kids who finish first while the others are finishing up.

06 February - I know my shapes - kindergarten

From laughpaintcreate

Description: Students create shapes using foam shapes and spraying paint

Materials:

form shapes

watercolor paper

spray bottles set on mist

liquid watercolor red, yellow, blue

Books: “A Color of His Own”, “A Tiny Seed”

Discussion:

1. With the kids on the floor talk about shapes, have them list some shapes that they know, then show them the different foamy shapes

2. Then review primary colors with them, ask them what the primary colors are (red, yellow, blue) what is so special about them (they can be used to mix all other colors) then ask what color red and blue, yellow and red, blue and yellow make. Tell them those colors (purple, orange, green) are called secondary colors.

3. Tell them that the first step in this art project was to arrange the shapes on their paper. Talk about different ways they can arrange them, randomly, making a scene or object (like a house or robot) out of shapes, or making a pattern. You can mention that the way artists arrange things on their artwork is called composition. Encourage them to fill the page with shapes (We had a few who did one small object in the middle of the page) They usually spend a lot of time doing this step and come up with some creative and wonderful ideas.

4. Then tell them they would be getting spray bottles with paint (the primary colors) And they will be spraying the paper. Tell the to hold the spray bottles above the shapes, maybe about a foot away. They should be careful not to spray so hard that the shapes move. I also told them not to spray anything but the paper (not each other or their hair...)

5. They can add shapes after they have sprayed one color (so if someone sprayed red paint, they can add shapes on top of the red paint before they add the blue)

Some kids had problems pushing down the spray bottles so they might need help.

Project:

1. Dismiss kids to the tables. Have students arrange foam shapes on paper.

2. Students can spray different colors of paint onto the paper.

 

3. Let paint dry completely before removing shapes. Have kids come back to the rug and read books. A Color of his Own and A Tiny Seed are in the box. While you are reading have the teacher or another parent go around and dab some of the extra paint off.

  

6. Then send kids back to their seats and to carefully lift the shapes and put them down on the table. So the paint doesn't smear if its still wet.

7. Kids wash hands

8. For clean up, dry the shapes slightly with a paper towel. But I would suggest you keep the shapes you just used separate from the other shapes. They take a while to dry and I don't want the next class to get painty shapes.