Paul Klee has quickly become one of my favorite artists to showcase in my art room. Purchasing The Cat and the Bird
After thumbing through the illustrations (I didn’t read the story to this age group), I brought out some of Klee’s works and spoke about warm and cool colors. I passed out watercolor paints, scraps of watercolor paper and a waterproof marker. The students practiced drawing quick rectangular shapes and then painted warm or cool colors into those shapes. It’s tricky painting small areas and it takes a lot of practice to do well. I don’t often do a watercolor lesson with a pen drawing as it’s very hard to contain the watercolors. That’s why I use oil pastel in most lessons. It’s way easier for children to be “successful”.
After the practice session, the children were given a 9 x 12 sheet of 90 lb watercolor paper and a thin-tip waterproof black pen. Starting from the bottom of the paper, they drew tall structures topped with triangle roofs. I used cardboard templates to assist with drawing the rectangular shapes. I prefer templates to rulers as I don’t want the children measuring and getting to caught up in making things perfect. Once the structures were in place, the children drew a moon or sun freehand.
Using trays of watercolor paint, the children painted their structures with cool colors. Was this easy? No. My students still have a really hard time distinguishing warm and cool colors or at least they find it hard to stick with a color group. I don’t blame them. It takes discipline. I don’t see a problem with allowing the children to use their own color choices unless you needed to grade a child’s ability to distinguish between warm and cool colors.
It is important to note that after the watercolor application, I had hoped to be finished with this project but as the children were handing me back their “finished” artwork, I knew that the project needed one more step….
Although the students followed my project instructions, I sensed that they really didn’t enjoy this project or that they didn’t particularly like the outcome of their efforts. To remedy this, I decided that a stronger outline and a few patterns inside the structures would make the project more appealing. I set trays of Crayola Metallic crayons and thick waterproof Sharpie markers on each table and demonstrated how to trace over the marker lines and add interesting details with the crayons. After the children completed this last step, the project went from ho-hum to wow! I could see how this extra step made the art process fun for this group of kids.
Didn’t they do an amazing job?
Total class time: 2 1/2 50-minute classes.
Gorgeous! Can’t wait to try this with my 5th graders!
Glad you like it!
What a great lesson-the results are stunning! Per your suggestion I purchased this book and was not disappointed! So many great illustrations to spring new ideas for projects! Cat and Bird is one of my favorites and last year when I showed the painting and taught the lesson to Kindergartners, I also read Lois Ehlert’s book, Feathers for Lunch. It goes perfectly with the painting!
Megan recently posted..Matisse Masterpieces
Two of my favourite art books! We’re on the same page. lol.
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Beautiful project. I love the metallic crayons. I have not tried those yet.
It is interesting to see how you use art books aimed at younger children with older children. I have quite a few, but haven’t used them because I thought the older kids would be bored.
I do have a document camera in the art room, which will help show those awesome (but tiny) illustrations to a large class.
Thanks for the inspiration!
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I LOVE your site and use it for inspiration on a weekly basis! THANK YOU for sharing all of your amazing ideas!
Question: What computer software program do you use to create your colorful lessons?
Hi Ashley,
Thanks! I use Photoshop for photo-editing and graphics. Sometimes I use iPiccy which is very user friendly and free! For my ebooks, I use Photoshop, Pages and Word.
Hello! I love all of your project ideasI I teach art at a kindergarten enrichment school and I would like to do this Paul Klee project with them. How can I adapt this to suit the kinders? Each of our art lessons need to be started and finished in one block of time, usually one hour but can be stretched out over the morning. I recently found the book, “The Cat and the Bird” to be used with this lesson. Thank you!
Jessica
We also made mobiles of Paul Klee’s cat and bird, drawing a colouring a cat and bird horizontally on construction paper, glue streamers on the inside bottom, add feathers to the streamers, roll up and tape/glue and add a string at the top to hang the mobile. They were so colourful and the children loved them.