Alternative Color Wheels

My goal this year with my 6th graders was to do more open ended projects in order for them to connect more to their art and to enjoy art more. This project was a really fun way to see them explore color and the color wheel and how they interpreted both...

Not sure where I developed this lesson from, probably the color wheel eyes and umbrellas floating around on Pinterest.

I Can Statement: I can create an alternative color wheel and use paint to mix secondary colors.

Day 1: I wanted to see how much information they retained throughout their elementary years of 3+ different art teachers, so I started with a blank color wheel and asked them to fill it out, no wrong answers, just telling me what they knew. After they were finished I played my FAVORITE color concept youtube video to "reveal the answers".

Then I asked them to go back and correct their answers and fill it in based on this color wheel which matched their blank one... 

Once we revisited the basics, I posed the question "Does the color wheel have to be a circle?" This got all the gears turned and a ton of examples from the internet definitely answered the question that it certainly did not in fact have to be a plain jane circle... 

           

The biggest requirement was that they mix the secondary colors and showed the six basic colors in an organized way that represented the color wheel... Then they got down to sketching!

Day 2: After a quick 1:1 with me and getting sketches approved they got to work.

Day 3-5: Lots of work time and artist statements once again (insert student groans).

I am so proud of the work they did on these, proud enough that I even took the time to hand write comments on each of the pieces (over 60!) It was worth the intense amount of hand pain!

I received an unbelievable amount of comments and praise from other staff and students and it was well deserved! 

The only issue that arose during the project was that some students lost sight about the project being about the color wheel and color concepts and were just "mixing paint". But, it was my first time with this lesson and I should have put more emphasis on that. It was just so exciting to watch them create!

Complementary Colored Giraffes with 1st & 2nd Grade

I love a good children's book before the start of a lesson or project but towards the end of the year, it gets pretty old reading the same story nine times! So, whenever I find a great online version of a story with animations I am pretty quick to show it to my students. Especially the words are also on the screen during it!

When I decided on giraffes for this lesson on complementary colors the book Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae, was the first thing that popped into my head! It is a fantastic book about a very unique giraffe and what a better way to start an artwork with very unique colored giraffe!

Day 1: Started off with the the digital version of Giraffes Can't Dance, the awesome version I found can be found on vimeo here.

Scholastic Interactive: "Giraffes Can't Dance" from Kat Llewellyn on Vimeo.

After the story we got into how our giraffes were going to be very unique because of their colors and then I did a lesson a complementary colors. I found the best thing in teaching complementary colors is making real world connections. I give examples of where the pairs are being used like sports teams and movies. The obvious favorite was this picture that I stumbled upon...

Let me tell you that none of them forgot the purple and yellow pair of complementary colors.

After we wrapped up the lesson on complementary colors we did a draw along of the giraffe and I gave them a bunch of suggestions of how to make it their own..they drew in sharpie only and then painted the first color in their pair with watercolors for the body.

Day 2: Review of complementary colors and then onto the spots! We used tempera paints for the spots for a little more contrast. When their spots were complete they were instructed to create a border with a second pair of complementary colors in oil pastels.

My plans for next year are to give them an option of any animal with spots or stripes but they will have to do a sketch first to make sure the animal is clear. This is pretty ambitious idea for me for 1st and 2nd graders but i'm feeling hopeful for next year!

Collaborative Continuous Line & Shapes

As mentioned in my post about the project "Ish" I did with my 2nd and 3rd graders. I attempted to do a collaborative project with another Elementary Art Teacher in the district and it totally failed. We had it all planned out but when you only see a group once every 6 days plus the weekend...It is hard to make sure everyone did one and get all the art where it needs to go. BUT! I made it work. Instead of collaborating with another school we just went across classrooms and another grade level. The inspiration came from Pinterest that originated over at Splish Splash Splatter!

I Can Statements:
I can use continuous line to start a collaborative project
I can identify geometric and organic shapes and use them in a collaborative work
I can use tints and shades to color in organic and geometric shapes

Day 1: Started off by showing some amazing art work of all different subject matter and had them try to figure out what they all had in common. Eventually, one kiddo in every class had the light bulb come on and figured it out that they were all created with one continuous line!

 
To start work time I showed them a video demo of me using a sharpie to fill a paper with one continuous line that was crazy but not crazy enough that it looked like scribbles. (P.s. If you do video demos, fast forward through parts, they think its hilarious!) Then they got busy creating their own. At this point we would have traded with the other school for them to add the shapes and potentially color as well so I did the "Ish" project as something to do during that exchanged time. It was during this class that we started the "Ish" project with the Tumble Book and planning sheet.

Day 2: "Ish" Project! This is where we would have done work on the other schools projects but FAIL.

Day 3: Shape time! Started with a slideshow about organic vs. geometric shapes that had some pretty neat animations of the shapes and objects transforming. Once that discussion was over we did a fun activity where I gave each student a different shape that was cut out of construction paper and laminated. They had to move to different places in the room depending on the kind of shape they had. After this activity they each took turns coming up to the board to draw a shape and choosing another classmate to guess geometric or organic. After all this excitement they got someone else's continuous line artwork and had to trace two of one kind of shape and one of the other. My not so great listeners added more shapes but stuff happens! A little art making, a lot of learning this day.

Day 4: Coloring! Started off the class looking at this Tints and Shades page of this awesome PDF I got on TpT via Brownie Points (Nicole Brown).

We talked about how when someone traced a big shape over the top of their continuous line it became a bunch of little shapes. And each big shape was one color broken into tints are shades inside those little shapes. The only demo was showing how I could get three colors/values with just one pencil. Some 2nd graders struggled with coloring but all in all there was success.

Day 5: Because of the intricacies in a lot of these we needed a second day to color these and finish up "Ish" and other projects.

McDill...

Jefferson Elementary...