Piet Mondrian

Broadway Boogie Woogie, 1942-43

Piet Mondrian

(Thanks Liz, for sampling this lesson at our September meeting).

Supplies:
drawing paper
cardboard square templates (in the art cabinet)
sharpies or black crayon
primary colors - could use markers, pastels, non-diluted liquid watercolors

Slideshow: Here's a link to a great one on slideshare. There is a nice opportunity in here to review the concept of primary colors (red, yellow, blue). Give the kids a chance to focus on and discuss one of the images: what's going on in this picture? What do you see that makes you say that? What more can you find?

Using the black sharpie or crayon, have the kids use their square cardboard templates to create squares on their paper (they can overlap however they like...). Then have them use the primary colors to create their color design.

Variation: Kelli had the kids do a Mondrian-inspired design onto their portfolios, incorporating their names.

Georgia O'Keefe with Kindergartners

Georgia O'Keefe, Red Poppy VI, 1928

"When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment.  I want to give that world to someone else." -Georgia O'Keefe

(G. O'Keefe slideshow presentation is here)

Last Friday the kindergartners and I did flower studies a la Georgia. I brought in a jar of flowers, sharpies, watercolor paper, and a couple of colors of liquid watercolors (I find that with kindergarten simple is really important. At least for me!) Before we started drawing, I gave each child a flower to touch, examine and smell. We talked about the color, shape, and texture of the petals; the center of the flower; the stem; how and where the colors were different. After spending a minute or two noticing, the kids drew their flower shape with a sharpie, and then added color. My main drawing instruction was to go as big as they could with their flower so they had lots of room to show all the details they noticed. I thought the pictures turned out great. 

Calder

Rachelle did this colorful and bright project with the Kindergartners, using the mobiles of Alexander Calder for inspiration. For instructions, see original lesson here. (At the art show these looked awesome mounted on black paper). Rachelle also made a great powerpoint, which can be found by clicking here.

Materials: sharpie, paper, oil pastels

Rachelle's tips: have them use the sharpie to draw a line first, and then have them add shapes coming off of the main line. Then have them use primary colored oil pastels (yellow, blue, red) to fill in their shapes.

Watercolor Birds

Rachelle did this fun project last year, found on Deep Space Sparkle. At the art show they were favorites for many of the kindergartners. Great step-by-step, including a drawing guide, can be found by clicking the link.

materials:
sharpies
pan watercolors
bowls for water

Noticing Nature

I wanted to do a simple lesson with the Kindergartners that would give us an opportunity to talk about one of the most important skills an artist can have: the ability to notice the world.

supplies: a camera, a bunch of natural things (I used: white beans, split peas, berries off an ash tree, sticks, little nests, sunflower seeds, and figs because that's what I found/had- but you could use whatever)

prep: gather your supplies and divide them into containers. You'll be splitting the kids into small groups of 2 or 3, so make enough for each group (I used paper lunch bags to hold the supplies, and filled 11 bags).

Discussion: I had the kids close their eyes and think about things that are beautiful to them in nature - answers included an acorn, a pet cat with only one eye, and flowers. We talked about what it was about those things that made them beautiful. The acorn, for instance, was little (size). The cat was soft (texture) and imperfect (imperfect things can be even more special than perfect ones). The flowers were purple (colors). Then, we talked about how nature makes all kinds of patterns - giraffes, zebras, rows of leaves on a branch, etc. The kids had lots to say about this - many ideas. (**I meant to show them some pictures of Andy Goldsworthy installations, but forgot to push send on the email to the teacher! So I didn't use any visual aids and it was fine, but I think if I did it in another K class or 1st grade I'd totally show them pictures like this and more from the Andy Goldsworthy slideshow here:

Andy Goldsworthy, Elder Leaves, 1983

Activity: We went outside the classroom on a patch of cement, and I gave the paper bags with supplies to each small group with instructions to make a design that was interesting and beautiful to them. We talked about maybe incorporating patterns (ABABAB, ABBAABBA) and looking at how the different colors look next to each other.

(These guys above focused on making patterns inside the nest, look closely. For the photograph, which is the "art", they thought it would look neat to have all their hands shown.)

(This group used sticks to frame their nest, and then made piles by color around the nest. The diagonal stick across was a deliberate choice too.)

The last part - I took pictures of all the "installations." (Practical tip: I also made sure to get one picture of each with a piece of paper with names of group members so I can get copies of the pictures into the right portfolios. I would totally forget!)