We Love Mixing Colors!

Students in 2nd grade explored color mixing.  Two students shared a paint palette (a large plastic container with a lid) that had the primary colors on it.   Students completed a color wheel, learning about how primary colors make secondary colors and browns.   Although the color wheel exercise is a little tired perhaps, the 2nd graders enjoyed the power and awe that comes from being able to mix so many colors from just three. 

I had the 2nd graders learn about tints and shades as well.  This was challenging for them, but they were able to grasp adding white for tints, and loved mixing more colors. 

 Next, we had a fun day of just mixing colors as each student engaged in the challenge of "how many colors can you mix from just three?".  I also gave the kids white paint on their palettes, so they could mix tints.   The kids absolutely LOVED making these color swatches.  I think doing this from the start without doing a color wheel first would also be a fun way to explore color mixing, especially if the students recorded their findings like scientists (and artists) and shared them with their peers. 

I wish I had a photo of just how many swatches were made by all three 2nd grade classrooms.   This is only a fraction of the total.  It was so wonderful to hear the students sharing how they mixed a certain color with a friend, as they mixed even more. They also offered each other advice on how to get a certain color. 

I also had the upper grade students learn about and mix secondary, tertiary and complimentary colors, so that they could apply that knowledge when painting their masks.   The color wheel above is more complex than the one the 2nd graders used. 

Introduction to Sculpture

Students in grades 4, 5 and 6 were introduced to sculpture through both a slide show of sculptures and a one-day sculpture challenge. 

 First, we looked at many different sculptures and discussed the difference between 2-Dimensional art and 3-Dimensional sculpture.  Sculpture asks an artist to consider all sides and angles of their work.  

"Swing Set", representational sculpture by 4th grader

 Next,  we learned that sculptures can be representational or non-representational.  Students have since been using these art terms to describe other things we are looking at in class.  It is great!

Non-representational sculpture by 5th grader

Non-representational by 6th graders

At last we got to the art making itself, and students were given the challenge of creating a representational OR a non-representational sculpture using only brown paper (crumple or twist), string, cardboard from cereal boxes and tape.

                            The results were quite diverse.

Representational sculpture of "ice cream" by 4th grader

Paper Animal Sculptures

As a one-day challenge, students in grades 2 and 3 created animals or creatures out of only magazine pages and tape.   We cared not what was written on the page, but instead ripped pages out of Better Homes and Gardens with reckless abandon. 

 Students practiced crumpling paper to make ovals and spheres, and coiling paper to make things like legs and necks.  

Some of the results were pretty great, and students got some exploratory practice in before an upcoming project.

Organic Shapes Remind Us of Things

Over the last two weeks, the second and third graders and I 
have been comparing and contrasting organic and geometric shapes.  

 To begin, we talked about how shapes are made using lines. We talked about how geometric shapes are symmetrical and usually made with straight lines, and we compared geometric shapes to organic, which are not symmetrical, and are generally made with crazy, lumpy, curvy, and zig-zag lines that when combined together, 
remind of things in nature. 

In order to make our own organic shapes that are "shapes that don't have names", we played a game using different types of lines.  Each shape was made spontaneously, by students using a certain number of a specific type of line, combined with specific amounts other types of lines. 

The results were certifiably organic. 

Right before we began examining the shapes we made, we looked at this book by Lisa Campbell Ersnt.  In her book, she begins with the alphabet and examines each letter shape in different directions.  Each way you turn a letter, you see something different.  The students were really excited by her revelations, and were able to see what she saw in each letter.  Some of the students immediately began looking at their own organic shapes from every direction, such as the student above. 

Next, I had all the students cut out the organic shapes they had made, and look at them from different directions to decide what they could become.  Students then glued down their shapes onto paper, basing their placement upon what the shapes would become.  

 I then asked the students to add to their shapes suing drawing materials, as well as the background behind them, in order visually show others what they saw in each shape.  

I love this person, whose skirt and hat are made from organic shapes!

One shape has become a dog, and the other a flag.

One thing I like about this project, is that I believe it helps students think about drawing objects in different ways, other than their already traditional ways of representing objects.  I want students to realize that there are other ways they can describe something like a flag or a car beyond what they automatically draw.  K-4 students (and adults too) generally use something called a schema when they draw. A schema is a system or catalog of representation that students use to communicate and fall back on.  The catalogs evolve as students get older, but they generally draw things in the same way all the time.  I think schemas are important, but believe students should also be pushed to draw in new and different ways, both realistically, symbolically and figuratively. 

"I see a bird and this is a milkshake".

A mushroom garden and a clever bat appear in this drawing.

The Silhouetted Objects Challenge

In preparation for making shadow puppets, which rely heavily on shape to communicate story and a sense of character, I had students in the 3rd and 4th grade think more about shape.  As a one-day challenge, I showed them a projected silhouette of a stapler and a scissor, which they were immediately able to identify "because of their shape" and because they are familiar with these objects.
We talked briefly about the word silhouette.  I really like silhouettes because, as stated by the artist Beatrice Coron, the language of silhouettes is efficient and gets down to the essential (qualities of something).

Art by Beatrice Coron who works in cut paper!

I then demonstrated the challenge I wanted the students to take on during class time.  
Each table group was given a baggie of words naming different objects such as bird, lamps, swing, etc.  
The challenge was for students to be able to cut out a shape or multiple shapes that communicated their chosen word so that it could be recognized without using any lines whatsoever. 

This is a horse and a suitcase by third graders in 207.

Once they found a shape(s) that communicated their word, they cut it out and glued it onto a cardboard "flash card". 
Each class now has a set of flash cards which we will discuss and play with during the next class. 

Fork and Lamp

Television, Shirt and Cherry

During this "challenge", students had to visualize the objects in their mind, as well as to think symbolically and consider what is essential to recognizing a particular object as a shape in order to successfully communicate their word.  

"Donut", "Butterfly" and "Swing"

Some words were challenging even for adults, and students struggled to figure out just how to do it without using any describing lines. 


For instance, your really do need a cut hole to communicate a donut!

 

Many of the students were extremely successful at communicating their word in silhouette.  I often got chills when I looked at their flash cards, thinking, wow they really got it! 

"Basketball" and "Lamp"

"Helicopter" and "Socks"