Read below student artwork to learn how students created these, what they learned about throughout the process, and see photos of students creating!
When students came into the art room and sat down, without showing them my teacher examples, I asked them, “who can remember and tell me what the primary colors are?” (They all learned about primary colors from the previous lesson when creating secondary colors from mixing primary colors)
I was happy to see everyone’s hands shooting up in the air!
***I feel like I should explain here that Kindergarteners don’t have art class in our district, that’s why I’m teaching them about primary/secondary colors, line, shapes, overlapping etc. etc. to my first grade classes***
Then I showed them my teacher examples and explained we’d be creating artwork inspired by the artist Piet Mondrian.
From there I showed them a brief PowerPoint about his life and artwork.
Students learned he was an artist from the Netherlands, who lived from 1872 to 1944 who was and still is today, a very influential and famous abstract painter. He is known for being one of the pioneers of 20th century abstract art.
One fact about his life was that he was an elementary school teacher before creating art full time. They also learned how he painted more realistically in the beginning, then developed a strong interest in creating more abstracted images, and eventually reduced his artwork to simple geometric elements, focusing on horizontal and vertical lines. He also paired down his color palette using mainly primary colors.
Below are some screenshots of slides taken from my powerpoint I showed students.
I asked students to show me how to draw vertical and horizontal lines with their finger in the air. Then I asked them how many vertical lines there were in his paintings, and how many horizontal lines and what shapes they created.
I asked my students “who can tell me what a shape is?” Students said rectangles, circles, squares…” I said yes those are all examples of shapes you’re right, but do you know what the definition of a shape is? What is a shape? I drew on paper a random line connected end to end that resembled a cloud, and asked “ is this a shape?” They all said yes!
I explained how any lines that connect end to end is a shape.
As I motioned my hands in the air – I asked my first grade students “what happens when 2 horizontal lines connect with 2 vertical lines?” ——they knew right away! They create rectangles and squares!
DAY 1 (OF 2)
Students used a small rectangular piece of Styrofoam dipped into black tempera paint, to stamp one end and print horizontal and vertical lines onto 12x 18” paper.
I explained to focus mainly on making squares and rectangles (just like Mondrian) but they could create triangles and other shapes here and there too!
I love the experimentation! Some students played around with the thickness of their lines!
DAY 2
Students colored in their shapes with primary colors using markers.
Some students took more of a Kandinsky approach to stamping their lines. I love the sense of movement these have below!
They really got into it, and some students told me they couldn’t wait to go home and create more!
Check back later this weekend for a new blog post on 4th Grade Radial Printmaking!! And check below to see 4th graders beautiful Dandelion Puffs! Thanks for stopping by!