Mondrian Creatures (2015)

Mondrian can be a little boring but this project always puts a fun twist on him that keeps students engaged...check out my original lesson here with links to where I got the original idea. I also did another awesome Mondrian project with my old 5th graders that you can check out here.

I Can tell you something about the artist Piet Mondrian
I Can name the primary colors
I Can create a creature out of a Mondrian inspired painting

Day 1: Intro to Mondrian including using the awesome video below....

After filling out their artist page they set up their papers so they were ready to paint next class. They each had a 9x12 piece of paper and had to draw at least 3 vertical and horizontal lines that touched each side. They also added more lines that didn't go all the way across to make for a more interesting composition. I did this with them using my document camera and we really focused on using our ruler correctly to get straight lines.

Day 2: Another AWESOME video. Review of primary colors. Then painting the primaries.

This video is probably their favorite.

For painting the primaries, I had each individual primary color of tempera paint on 2 tables and students moved to the color they needed to use. (A simple easy way to incorporate movement!)

Day 3: ANOTHER awesome video. Painting the black lines and practicing their creature.

For painting the black lines, I had multiple widths of flat brushes for them to use for more line variety. When they finished they got a 9x12 scratch paper to practice drawing whatever they were going to turn their painting into. Students that were absent somewhere in this process used a thick sharpie to draw their black lines instead of painting, this really helped to catch them up.

Day 4: ONE MORE awesome video. Creating the creature day one.

This one is MY favorite.

On the back of their paintings they drew their creature as big as possible and cut it out. I had all colored scraps, silver paper, string, and sharpies for them to add more details.

Day 5: They were bummed I didn't have one more video. A second workday to create their creature, fill out their second part of their artist page, and do the mondrian extension activity.

Anyone else have a fun project they do with Mondrian besides just the classic painting like him?

Mondrian Extension

The Mondrian cubes I did with 5th grade was one of those projects that had students working at all different paces so I ended up doing an extension with early finishers. Its just a simple as they look! They could draw anything they wanted and were encouraged to use a ruler to break up their drawing into squares and rectangles and color with primaries. Like most extensions many students took it another direction, but as long as they were engaged and creating with purpose I let it go!

You will see a few pumpkins/ghosts as this extension happened the week before and of Halloween :)

What can I say? They know me.

Mona Lisa!

Mondrian Inspired Cubes!

One of the perks of teaching a lesson the first time is that you can use student suggestions and input to make it way better than you intended. I luckily have a great batch of 5th graders that start my rotation out to give me really great input!

I love Mondrian, no matter how boring some people might think his work is, I see such beauty and simplicity in the basic primaries. I just can't resist sharing Mondrian and his work with my students but I do like to mix it up ergo the cubes. I did the project below with my 2nd graders and Mondrian last year.

Day 1: Intro to Mondrian. I give them a little background info about him and then we watch this seriously amazing animation of his work on YouTube.

We look carefully at a few of his works and then I introduce the project by talking about cube vs. square. The rest of the class is spent creating their template for their cube by tracing pre-cut 4x4 squares onto a 1/2 sheet of poster board and following this guide I made them :)

Day 2: Right away when they come in, I show them more SERIOUSLY awesome YouTube videos inspired by Mondrian.

The music isn't great for this one so I usually mute it...

They freak out over this one...

So here is the part where they changed my mind:

Originally on my example I only did traditional Mondrian (square/rectangles/black lines) and they were like "Lets do any geometric shapes or shapes with straight edges only." After pondering a moment I was like "THAT SOUNDS AWESOME" And tada!

Here are a few mid-process ones...

After 3-4 more work days these beautiful cubes were born and held together with tacky glue!

Hints for the cube:
I had pre-cut 6"x12" strips of each primary and 4"x12" black for them to use to limit paper waste.

Put them together last, they don't take up too much space week to week if you wait until the end

Score all of the edges and tabs with a ruler before working on the designs and re score right before putting it together... makes things A LOT easier.

Check out these stunning works! By the way, I was inspired by this everywhere on Pinterest post for this project...

Jefferson Elementary...

McDill Elementary...

2nd Grade Mondrian

Just finished up my Art History units with my classes. Which is really my favorite because I get to show them all of my favorites and I'm RIDICULOUSLY excited to teach it to them!

First up was Mondrian with 2nd grade. Which I know SNOOZE, but really, I love colors and primary colors so its a natural attraction for me! I got this lesson from a pinterest post from here and here.

Picked for Youth Art Month Display!

Day 1: Basic short PowerPoint of info about Mondrian. I always like to tell students how old the artist we are talking about would be if still alive today, puts things in a time frame for them and lets them compare to their grandmas and grandpas :) And then THIS AWESOME VIDEO. The quality isn't great but it is so cool! Its an animated Mondrian changing all of his paintings throughout his art life span! The biggest things we talk about is his use of primary colors and straight lines. To start the project I give reminders about how to get straight lines and let them loose. I liked the idea of them using different materials for each color, so they painted with one primary on this first day.

Day 2: Colored with two different materials for the last two primaries. And went over their lines in sharpie to be a little more like Mondrian. A few finished and I showed them 1:1 how to then turn their Mondrian into a "creature"

Day 3: Turned the basic Mondrians into creatures, I say "creature" because some took the route of MineCraft and dragons etc. The only rule was something with a face! They drew the shape of the creature on the white side and cut it out and used scraps of black, white, and other colors they needed to complete the creature. Last but not least naming it after Mondrian with either Mondrian or Piet!

Extension Day: Some classes took longer to complete this so if that happened I had a take home that day extension project of using precut strips and squares to create Mondrian style artwork. I also showed them really cool stop animation videos on YouTube. There is a TON! The one below is a favorite!

In Progress Extension

Loved how these turned out and the process. Wouldn't of changed a thing (except showing more videos)!

These two also made the YAM art show!

Kennedy Elementary...

 McDill Elementary...

 Jefferson Elementary...