Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky was born on December 4, 1866, in Moscow, Russia. The young Kandinsky drew, wrote poems, and played the piano and cello. After graduating from school, he became a law teacher. Kandinsky began painting at the age of 30. He felt that painting possessed the same power as music and that sign, line, and color ought to correspond to the vibrations of the human soul. Many art historians believe that Kandinsky had a form of synesthesia, where sounds were linked to colors. Essentially, he could hear color and see music. The kindergarten students listened to "The Noisy Paint Box" written by Barb Rosenstock and illustrated by Mary Grandpre'. In the book, the author tells the fascinating story of Kandinsky and how he experienced colors as sounds.

Wassily Kandinsky, Bright Picture, 1913

During art class, students pretended to by Kandinsky and listened to three composers introduced throughout the year during Mrs. Meirose's music class; Johann Sebastian Bach, Camille Saint-Saens, and John Philip Sousa. By listening to the sounds and rhythm of the music, each student determined how that sound should look in his/her drawing/painting as if they could also see the music and hear the colors like Kandinsky. For more information about Kandinsky and synesthesia, visit the following websites: www.Guggenheim.org, www.wassilykandinsky.net, and www.pbs.org.

“I saw all the colors in my mind; they stood before my eyes. Wild, almost crazy lines were sketched in front of me.” 

-Wassily Kandinsky  

Action Painting in the ART room!

I love giving students an opportunity to experiment with interesting and unique painting tools and processes. With action painting, my students (first grade and kindergarten) use the primary colors as well as black and white paint and apply it to both small and large papers with spatulas, rollers, toy cars and trucks, eye droppers, toothbrushes, and paint brushes. This can make for an incredibly messy week, not only for students, but also for me, as you can see from the photo below.  For all parents, the paint is tempera and washable!

I would have to say that this is the most memorable weeks in art for most students, something that makes the end of the year more exciting and adventurous.  We also learn about an artist who is most famous for his works in action painting, Jackson Pollock. This video gives great insight into who he was as an artist as well as a person.

One more day of Action Painting for the week! I hope you enjoy all the photos of students outside participating in splatter paint. It was a beautiful day to be outside!

Butterfly Invasion

I don't know about you, but this cold weather has me dreaming about warmer days. We were spoiled not too long ago with warm temperatures hitting the 70's and wishful thoughts of flowers in bloom and leaves sprouting on trees, but then the true South Dakota reality of frigid temperatures returned with temperatures as low as the teens. Weeks like this make me wish for warmer days and these thoughts sometimes inspire activities in the art room.

Kindergarteners continued working with balance and symmetry and created beautiful butterflies to decorate and brighten our hallway. Students started by folding a large 12"x18" paper in half and using black tempera paint, drew one half of the butterfly's wing (number 3), folded their paper in half, rubbed the back, opened the paper again, and saw a completed butterfly with a symmetrical reflection on both halves.

After using black tempera to add shapes and lines to the wings (and then folding and rubbing to match the opposite side to create symmetry), students then used tempera paint cakes to add color to the wings continuing with the symmetry theme, mirroring their color choices. After papers dried, students had the choice of cutting out their butterflies or keeping the butterflies as is and painting a spring inspired background around the butterfly.

Kindergarteners (all four sections) also worked on a large collaborative mural, using tempera paint to create a spring scene. Students were given paint brushes and tempera paint and told to think spring! It turned out beautiful and can be seen just outside the kindergarten wing in our building. Because I do not purchase secondary colors for my classroom, when choosing orange, green or purple paint to use on the mural, students had to consider what primary colors were needed to mix.

"Balanced" Hearts

Students in Kindergarten are creating a heart project that reinforces the vocabulary word balance and mosaic. We likened balance (symmetry) in art to a scale. When a piece of art is “heavy” on one side we feel that the art is out of balance, but when we find shapes to match the other half, it gives a feeling of balance. 

Once the concept of balance and symmetry was introduced, students created their own symmetrical balanced heart that has matching rather than lopsided halves. We first practiced on small 4"x4" red paper and then moved onto larger 12"x18" tag board. The first step was to fold our paper in half vertically (hamburger style). As a class, we discussed how our paper now has an open and closed side. On the closed side, students placed their five fingers (2 fingers for the smaller paper) pinkie at the top of the paper and made a dot below their thumb on the folded edge (closed side). 

Students drew half a heart starting with the dot along the edge and continued drawing their line to the top of the paper, to the far side, and back down to the bottom corner on the fold side. For students who had difficulty with this step, dots were drawn by the teacher and connected by the students (see photo below).

Once all papers were checked by the teacher for correctly starting and finishing on the fold side, students were able to cut on the heart line, cutting two papers at the same time, while the paper remained folded. If cutting and drawing were completed correctly, a symmetrical whole heart could be found when the students opened their papers. Sometimes, If I don't keep my eyes open, we could find two half hearts instead of one whole heart. This is what happens when students work on the open side instead of the fold side.

Oooops!

After creating our balanced and symmetrical heart shape, students then divided one half of their heart into sections by drawing straight lines from one side of their heart to the other side or from one black line to another black line with a black oil pastel to create a mosaic. The paper heart is then folded in half and rubbed with an old gift card to transfer symmetrical lines to the other half of the heart, ending with a mosaic effect. At the end of this week and next week, everyone will have the opportunity to paint inside each shape using tints and shades of one color (monochromatic color scheme). To make the paint values balanced and matching on both halves of the heart, students close their heart shape along the fold line after painting a shape. Students then rub to transfer the painted values to the opposite side of the heart making a "balanced" symmetrical shape.

When I purchase paint for my classroom, I rarely purchase secondary colors like orange, purple and green. I love color theory and really encourage my students to mix their own secondary colors, as well as any tints and shades they may need, even at the kindergarten level. For example, the heart below uses only purple and its tints and shades. To make purple, students must use the two primary colors red and blue in the right ratios to make purple. To keep it simple, students will only be working with a light, medium and dark value of one color. To use purple, it must be mixed from the primary colors, because I do not have any purple paint in my art room.

Crayola is not a sponsor of Art Teacher 101, but I really do like their paint! After the hearts are painted and dry, we will add them to a colored piece of construction paper matching the color used on the heart.

Returning from Winter break

Two simple drawings from memory I consistently assign after break include student's favorite Christmas gift and favorite Winter break activity. These drawings give us an opportunity to practice grabbing art supplies using our Art Supply Inspectors, placing unfinished projects in our colored table drawers (Drawer Inspectors), putting supplies away at the end of class, quietly working without talking during "Quiet Working Time" and sharing our art during "Share Time" at the end of class. 

We also practice art room procedures like how to ask to use the bathroom, ask a question, inform the teacher when you are done (thumbs up), and how to earn rainbow club points by following the art room rules.

Another key word/concept that is emphasized during the drawing activity is "details". Students are encouraged to use details to help develop the visual story of their Winter break memory. Examples of details are discussed at the start of class and brainstormed together as a whole group on a sample drawing on the marker board.

This assignment is completed by all grades K-2.

This activity usually takes two 30 minute art periods and finished drawings will be placed in our "End of Year" Portfolio. Even though we are drawing from memory now, by the end of the year we may forget what this drawing was all about, so, I use Avery Address Labels to stick to one corner of the paper describing the front and back drawings. This makes it easy to remember the drawing assignment and easy for students to describe it to parents at the end of the year. If the child has forgotten the drawing assignment, they need to only read the label in the corner. I also use this same address sticker to label our baseline portfolio drawings completed at the start of the year (same label size, different description).

Avery Address Label 5260

Winter Projects

Winter projects bring lots of excitement, chaos, and mess to the art room, but students have so much fun creating with new materials. Kindergarteners created snowmen from circular sponge stamps and white tempera paint on 4"x4" blue paper. Then, they built houses for their snowmen to live from popsicle sticks, wood glue and a splash of color using tempera paint. 

We also experimented with mini winter landscapes by tearing small 5"x6" drawing paper into three strips to create our foreground, middle ground, and background. One edge of each torn strip was traced with blue or purple chalk pastels, and then, smeared to give it a hazy look. Students overlapped the torn strips to create the illusion of hills and glued the strips in place to blue construction paper.

Second and first graders learned special tricks used by artists to create the illusion of space in their own winter landscapes such as overlapping, changing the size of objects (smaller objects in background, larger objects in foreground) as well as the placement of objects on the paper (Lower objects in foreground, higher objects in background), and changing the value of objects so it appears lighter and hazier as it recedes into the background.

Second graders used double loaded and dry brush techniques to create their trees, while first graders cut their trees for their winter landscapes from green construction paper.

Recycled Snowmen are a tradition in second grade as a winter project. It gives second grade students the opportunity to use glue guns safely and choose materials that would be most appropriate to use with glue guns or craft glue such as buttons, pom pom, fleece, sequins, scrap paper, etc.

Lines, Lines, and more Lines!

I must admit that this lesson idea is not my own, but an idea I borrowed from the great Cassie Stephens at  "What the Art Teacher Wore" blog.  Line is one of six basic design elements in art and students learn about new line vocabulary at the kindergarten level through this lesson and my first and second graders can review their basic line vocabulary as we paint, draw, and sculpt various different lines.  First, kindergarten students are introduced to basic line vocabulary through a poem called "Larry the Line" written by Cassie Stephens.

Larry the Line

Is a friend of mine 

(creating a snake by opening the fingers of your hand, puppet style and there's your snake!)

He can make three

(hold up a three with your fingers)

Straight lines for me!

Ver-tickle

(create a vertical line with your forearm)

Diagonal and horizontal!

(pantomime each)

Any curve, he can learn

With a twist and a turn.

When he's out of his tangle

he makes a great...angle.

(created by placing your hand on your hip and pointing to your elbow)

Any line, he can make

After all, he's a snake! 

After learning the Larry the Line poem, students receive a demonstration on painting. Cassie Stephens likens the bristles of the paint brush to a ballerina: It always dances on it's toes and never scoots around on it's bottom. We also discuss how we dip only the tip of our brush in the paint and never smash Mr. Brush's hairs for that will give him one bad hair day and an awful headache! After demonstrating how to paint a zig zag, wavy, straight, dotted, and dashed line, the students paint the same lines on their own paper using black tempera paint.

Kindergarten add colors of their choosing.

On the next day of this unit, kindergarteners were introduced to our tempera paint cakes.  Students were reminded to use lots of water to activate the tempera cakes and how to clean the brush before choosing another color. 

My first and second graders are also reviewing lines, painting, and brush procedures with a Kandinsky inspired art lesson. On the first day, we examined one of Kandinsky's Compositions using Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS). We also discussed key life facts like where he was born, what inspired him, what was going on during his life, etc. with a keynote presentation. Over the course of 3-4 art classes, students painted chinet plates (perfect plates for painting because of its stiff texture) with Kandinsky inspired concentric circles. We also discussed how radial designs can also appear circular like Kandinsky's concentric circles. Once the plates are painted and patterned, my first and second graders will turn these paper plates into looms and weave. I will be honest, I am a little nervous about teaching first and second graders how to weave. Can you imagine the chaos, but we are going to give it a try!

Baseline Portfolio Drawing, Rules and Procedures

The first two to three weeks of school for all grades allows for much practice of the art room rules and procedures. Each day students come to the art room, we quickly review the art room rules, procedures, and expectations, how to receive punches in individual Art "buck" punch cards and gain points for Rainbow Club as a class. A new activity I created to make the explanation of procedures and rules more exciting was an art room scavenger hunt. Second grade students, working with their table groups, were given a list of items to seek and find in the art room ranging from Art Jobs and Staplers to scrap paper drawers and sign language signs. First and kindergarten students were shown pictures from the art room in a keynote presentation and together as a class pointed to the found items in the room.

The first two weeks also allow me to gain valuable information about students' current skill levels in drawing and name writing. I call these drawings baseline portfolio drawings. Each year kindergarten through second grade, students will draw a self portrait and "My House" drawing without guidance on 9”x12” drawing paper and with a #2 pencil. These drawings usually take 2-3 days and students will add color with crayons (kindergarten) or colored pencils (first and second grades). For those students who finish early, we talk about adding "details" to give the viewer more information. For example, within the background of their self portraits, I tell them to draw items that tell me more about their hobbies and interests.

Second grade students this week will also list items to add to this year's Rainbow Club Chart and as a group VOTE FOR the ACTIVITIES they like best TO ADD to the RAINBOW CLUB chart.

Anchor Standard 1 (K-2): Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
Anchor Standard 2 (K-2): Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.
Anchor Standard 10 (K-2): Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to create art.

It's Raining Origami Cats and Dogs Again!

I love introducing Kindergarten and first grade students to the art of origami. It not only exposes them to many folds, such as side to side and corner to corner, but introduces the class to a diverse culture and country and a great discussion on shape characteristics, such as a square having four corners and four sides while a triangle only has three corners and three sides. As tradition holds in my building, kindergarten students learn step by step how to fold a simple origami cat, which is also the exact same steps for the origami dog. The first day of class we discuss that the art of origami originates in Japan and locate Japan on the map in our classroom. I show the students the steps at the demonstration table. I then hand one square origami paper to each child and we walk through the steps together as a class. I walk around and check progress through each step. Lastly, I let each child pick their own color of origami paper and try it on their own. If they need help, they only need to raise their hands. Next class, students will choose which cat or dog head is the best and take the other one home. The origami cat or dog head kept in the classroom will be glued to a 12" x 18" drawing paper and students will add the body, legs, tail and any other details necessary for their cat or dog with pencil first, then oil pastel contour lines, and finally tempera paint cakes (similar to a watercolor resist) to fill. Here are the directions below for the origami cat and dog, if you would like to try it at home.  Look to Artsonia to see gallery examples from 2013. To see the step by step directions for the origami cat and dog, check out this previous link here.

Silly Self Portraits

You may have noticed your kindergartner is obsessed with folding strips of paper into bouncy accordion folds. I must apologize for we have been working on paper folding in art and students are very excited with their bouncy creations. We used these basic accordion folded strips to create the arms and neck for our silly self portraits.

Kindergarten silly self portraits.

To create the basic bouncy accordion fold, students glued the ends of two strips of construction paper together at a right angle (Letter "L").  Then, we folded the bottom strip over the top strip, making sure two strips remained perpendicular.  Next, students continued criss-crossing bottom over top, keeping the strips at right angles to each other. Finally, students glued the end to the top of the final piece. 

Students not only practiced their folding skills, but also practiced their cutting skills with more difficult cuts like tracing our hands with our fingers open and cutting around each finger. We also drew our head with hair and practiced cutting around the outside shape. When creating our self portraits, we discussed how each of us was unique and different and that our skin color was also unique and different. We choose appropriate marker and paper colors to reflect our true skin color using the following products.

Multicultural Markers from Crayola and Multicultural construction paper.

Mirrors were used to make sure we drew every part of our face. Much attention was placed on the eye where we discussed the location in the center of the face, the pupil, the iris, and their shapes. Students could add yarn to make their portrait more life like.