Homophones & Art Lesson Plan

March 4, 2013 By 2 Comments
Homohones-and-Art

What do homophones, homonyms and art have in common? Not much but the book, Cat Tale by Michael Hall does an amazing job of incorporating the two.

In this single, subject lesson plan, children create secondary colors from primary colors without even using a paintbrush. Inspired by three adventure-seeking cats who spend the afternoon chasing words, including homophones and homonyms, this book bridges reading skills and art.

The book provides wonderful visuals to support their tongue-twisting adventure and offers art students the chance to explore shapes, movement and self-expression. Perfect for children in grades 1-3.

Click here to read more…

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Filed Under: Art and Literature, Color Wheels & Theory, First Grade, Second Grade, Third Grade

Experimenting with Color Theory

November 13, 2012 By 24 Comments
Experiment-with-color-

After my post on Open-Ended Art lessons, I couldn’t wait to try a little experiment. It seems as though we are a divided community of art educators, feeling that one approach might be better than another. I certainly have strong opinions on what works for me and my students but I sure do love to [...]

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Filed Under: Color Wheels & Theory, Sixth Grade

Apple Art Project

October 15, 2012 By 4 Comments
Apple-Art-Project

If you are looking for an engaging book to pair up with an “apple” art project, Nikki McClure’s Apple is a lovely option. Crisp paper-cut illustrations pair with single word text engages children to fill in the storyline with their imaginations. I asked Nikki some questions and she graciously agreed to provide some answers. You [...]

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Filed Under: Color Wheels & Theory, Fall Art, First Grade, Kindergarten

Starlight Pumpkin Art Lesson

October 4, 2012 By 45 Comments
Nightime-Pumpkin-Art-Project

These beautiful, glowing pumpkins have a lot going on: drawing from observations and sequence, primary color mixing, adding highlights, cutting and pasting skills and composition. I have a very strong group of Kinders this year and they did exceptionally well following this multi-step project.  Here’s what we did…. Using a black oil pastel and a [...]

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Filed Under: Color Wheels & Theory, Fall Art, First Grade, Kindergarten

Paul Klee Art Lesson

September 26, 2012 By 11 Comments
Klee-castles-art-project

Paul Klee has quickly become one of my favorite artists to showcase in my art room. Purchasing The Cat and the Bird by Geraldine Elschner and Peggy Nille is a big reason for this excitement. It’s so much easier holding up an exquisitely illustrated picture book than coming up with my own powerpoint or dry explanation [...]

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Filed Under: Art and Literature, Buildings and Architecture, Color Wheels & Theory, Famous Artists, Fifth Grade

Pantone Colors Art Lesson

March 31, 2012 By 18 Comments
Pantone-art-project

Color mixing is one of the most rewarding paint experiences in art class. Children love to squish, mingle and mix paint until there is nothing left but a big blob of muddy brown. We remedy that by teaching how to make secondary colors and that by adding white paint, they can achieve a myriad of [...]

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Color Wheels & Theory, Second Grade

Tint and Pattern Circles

October 11, 2010 By 12 Comments
painting with circles

Becoming familiar with paint is one thing. Becoming familiar with what paint can do is another thing altogether. Who knew that adding white paint to colored paint would give these kids such a thrill? Some kids don’t like the idea of messing up perfectly good primary colors. No problem, because there is another big art [...]

Filed Under: Color Wheels & Theory, Third Grade

Primary and Secondary Colors Art Lesson

September 23, 2010 By 19 Comments
DSC04969

I vowed to begin the year with a unit on teaching color theory. It means breaking out the paints when it’d be alot easier sticking to paper and markers but what the heck, I have a sink. By second grade, most kids know the primary colors and many know the secondary colors. This lesson reinforces the [...]

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Filed Under: Color Wheels & Theory, Second Grade

Colorwheel Flowers Art Lesson

September 14, 2010 By 23 Comments
Colorwheel flowers

I jumped right in this year…messy painting project on Day One! Actually, it was alot of fun and the kids loved it. For my first graders, I wanted to begin the year with a colorwheel lesson. Often I wait until a bit later in the year but it’s worth it to start the year with [...]

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Filed Under: Color Wheels & Theory, First Grade, Spring Art

Colorwheel Bouquet Art Lesson

May 25, 2010 By 20 Comments
colorwheel bouquet art lesson

This is a great lesson to teach the colorwheel, reinforce cutting and pasting skills and sharpen color observation and recognition. I did this lesson with my Kinders at the at end of the school year. They had a whole year to become familiar with cutting, pasting and sorting, so they were quite capable of understanding [...]

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Filed Under: Color Wheels & Theory, Inclusion/Special Needs Art Projects, Kindergarten, Spring Art Tagged With:

Primary Color Parrot Painting Lesson

April 12, 2010 By 7 Comments
Oct 07 034

Parrots are an art room staple..for lessons, I mean. They are easy to draw and even more fun to paint. I love this lesson because, no matter what the child’s perceived artistic ability, most will be totally surprised with how well they did. For this lesson, which took three-45 minute class times, we started with [...]

Filed Under: ART LESSONS by Grade, Birds, Color Wheels & Theory, Fourth Grade

Colorwheel Clown Art Project:

January 6, 2009 By 15 Comments
clown art project

I wish I could remember the website where I found this lesson! It’s one of my favorite kinder lessons that incorporates a color wheel. This lesson is a bit involved. It usually takes three 30-minute classes to complete this project but it’s worth it. You’ll need the following: white card stock with a color wheel [...]

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Filed Under: Color Wheels & Theory, First Grade, Kindergarten Tagged With: ,