Paul Klee Non-Objective Drawings

Here is a sampling of my latest project from the 5th graders at one of my schools. My other school is starting it next week. It is inspired by another former colleague. Check out her gallery here.

We started by looking at images by Paul Klee. We first focused on his abstract images such as Castle and Sun and talked about abstract paintings. We defined abstract as art that is based on a subject matter but converted into shapes. We then segued into his non-objective paintings and defined non-objective as art that has no subject matter. 

Next, the kids were asked to draw 4-7 large lines on their paper to break up the space. Finally, we talked about color theory and focused on analogous colors. I explained how to read the color wheel and quizzed them with questions such as "If I am on red, which two colors could I use?" I then demonstrated how to blend the oil pastels and leave a space around the pencil lines for black. I stressed saving the black for last and explained that we didn't want the black to smear into the colors. 

Most of them turned out amazing! Here is our gallery, but you can see some of them below.

Blue Dog

My third graders are starting a project based on George Rodrigue's Blue Dog paintings. I am always so excited to teach about a living artist, which made me extra sad to learn that Rodrigue died in December. 

We are starting our lesson by reading Why Is Blue Dog Blue? by Rodrigue. I was nervous that the book is a little young for third graders, but they loved guessing what color Rodrigue would choose for each of the pages. 

After reading the book, we drew the dogs together. I was using the SmartBoard and the kids followed along. I allowed them to add a collar to make each one unique. We will start painting next week!

Color Wheel Spirals

I got the idea for this project from a former colleague. Her gallery is here. I love the color wheel, but realize that not all people do. I love that this project allows for students to mix their own secondary colors but isn't a boring, generic color wheel. I also love adding the iPad step at the end to add interest for students that might not have been excited about the painting step. 

Here is the video I created using a free trial version of Camtasia. I love Camtasia. If I was in the market for a $300 software, it would be Camtasia. However, I'm not, so now I'm experimenting with iMovie-which is free-much more my price range!

I am doing this project with 4th graders, and they are looking great so far. A couple of classes are done or nearly done painting and will start Sharpie next class. My other school will be starting these next week. 

Completed painting.

This and the following photos are after using the Percolator App.

Student work in progress.

Picasso's Blue Portraits

I am starting a new project with my second graders soon. I decided to use a presentation App on my iPad called Flowboard to introduce the lesson. Here is the intro, and I will post about the project once we get started. Here's the link to the Picasso Flowboard.


View on Flowboard - Presentation and Storytelling Platform for iPad

CREDIT: The portrait template on the last slide was created by Tricia Fuglestad. I received it when I purchased the eBook for her Master Class at Education Closet.