Kandinsky Circles: 1st Grade

We spent a lot of time in first grade learning our color families! I used this project to drive it all home. We used oil pastels and/or crayons.

Color Families: Primary, Secondary, Neutral, Warm, Cool, Complementary Colors (Y&V, R&G, O&B).

I combined all of the pieces together for the display to achieve a really big wall of circles. The students loved the display!

1st grade - Knowing Our Colors & Creating Peacocks

While this may not be the best picture, I think you can get the idea. I used peacocks to teach colors to my 1st graders. We had just finished watching a video series on colors (complete with color worksheets!) and I need a project to apply some of these concepts.

Day 1 - After handing out their completed worksheets, I gave students a 12x18 sheet of paper. I had students fold their papers in half like a card. I instructed students to color primary colors on one half and secondary colors on the other - front and back. Some students, like the one pictured above, just colored in blocks. Others opted for more complicated designs and pictures.

Day 2 - I printed out a peacock template on card-stock paper. I told students to color in their peacock body using ONLY cool colors (we reviewed what these are). After coloring, students cut out the peacock and did the other side. When they finished, I had them bring the peacock to me. I cut a slot in the body of each peacock.

Day 3 - I taught my first graders to fan-fold! The 12x18 papers are folded so that they are TALL. At first, I told students to put it through the slot themselves, but many had issues doing that. So I had students bring their peacock and fan-fold paper up to me. I put the fan fold through the slot and stapled it once at the top. Ta-Da!!

They LOVED these peacocks!!

6th Grade Graphic Flowers (Georgia O'Keeffe)

My sixth graders created bright, expressive flowers! Here are the steps we took for each class.

Day 1: Observe Georgia O'Keeffe's flowers and practice drawing our own large flowers. I asked students to make their flowers so big that the petals ran off the page.

Day 2: Background time! I had students choose either warm or cool colors. Students drew circles inside of circles on a sheet of 12x14 paper for the background (reference the final results). Students then did a watercolor wash over the top of their background. If students used warm colors, than the color they chose was warm.

Day 3: Students drew large flowers and put different patterns inside the petals, leaves, etc.

Day 4: Students traced over their lines with oil pastels. With a smaller class, I would have had the students use oil pastels right away. Some of my students used crayons. The next time I do this lesson, I will have everyone use crayons. They just work so much better!

Day 5: Students used watercolor to make their flowers look awesome!

Day 6: Students cut out their flowers. Students folded strips of paper accordian style and glue them to the back of the flower and to the front of the background. This make the flowers POP off of the page. Voila!

Don't these look awesome!?

Keith Haring: 4/5th Grade

Here are some of the finished works from 4/5th grade! This project took WAY longer than I expected. Most of the students are still working towards finishing! They look really awesome though.

Aren't these cool?! I can tell my students are very proud of themselves, as they should be!