elementary art lesson

In the style of M.C. Escher – Tesselation Print

Fifth-graders at the elementary school in which I teach art lessons study M.C. Escher as part of their art curriculum. M.C. Escher, though most famous for his tesselations was particularly notable for his prints. This year I got a little ambitious and decided to combine the two.

Here’s how it went down:

First, I gave each student a 3.5 by 3.5 square of cardstock. One side of the cardstock was textured, which made it easy to tell them apart. This becomes important later in the lesson. (One alternative to textured cardstock is to use a lined index card).

Using the cardstock, they designed a unique shape for their tesselation, using the following steps:

  • Draw a shape on the left edge of the card stock.
  • Cut it out and tape it to the opposite side. Be precise in your alignment.
  • Turn the card 90 degrees to the left, and draw a design on the left side.
  • Cut out and tape on the opposite side.

Once this step was complete, the students traced their tessellation onto a 9X12 sheet of paper as shown below:

Line up the tessellation design at the top left corner of the page and work to the right and down until it goes off the paper.
Color in entire page with colored pencil, lightly enough that the tessellation pencil lines are still visible.

Next, using styrofoam, students created a block print pattern.

  • Trace your tessellation design onto styrofoam.
  • Cut out with scissors.
  • Use a wooden stylus to etch designs onto the side you will use to print.
Warning: make sure you etch the design onto the side that lines up with your tessellation. You will be applying ink to it and pressing it face down onto the tessellation so it must match up. This will make more sense as you begin the next step.
  • Roll out an even layer of ink with a brayer.
  • Apply it to foam.
  • Line it up with every other section of your tessellation and press evenly.

A few recommendations:

  1. Have as many adults helping out as you can recruit. The last step is messy and it will be more successful with adult supervision.
  2. As can be expected in a large classroom (we had 30 students), there was some bottle-necking during the print-making process. To alleviate this, make sure you have several separate stations (with adults helping out at each, ideally). We had 5 brayers, 5 cookie sheets, and 5 tubes of ink. We only had one adult, though, which guaranteed complete chaos. Lesson learned – recruit more help! The kids will feel more successful when they are carefully guided through the print-making process.

Materials used: Speedball Block Printing ink, soft rubber brayers, Scratch Art scratch foam, Scratch Art wooden stylus, colored pencils, cardstock.

Difficulty: Moderate to hard for 5th graders. But totally doable with enough help in the classroom.

Below is the Powerpoint I used to instruct the students visually. Feel free to use as needed.

MC-Escher-Block-Print-TessellationDownload

Leonardo Da Vinci One-Point Perspective – Elementary Art Lesson

Teaching about Leonardo Da Vinci to fourth-graders presents the perfect opportunity to practice portraits (Mona Lisa?). However, since I am one of three teachers in my daughter’s fourth grade class, and between the three of us we have done a combined total of three portrait lessons so far this academic year, I figured I would forego another one in favor of a lesson on linear perspective.

Da Vinci’s Last Supper provides a perfect example of one-point perspective, so naturally we studied it as our guide. My only problem came in deciding on a project they could tackle (and be proud of) in just under an hour. Tall order.

This was my first drawing. I threw in the towel after realizing that there was no way a bunch of ten-year-olds could complete any semblance of what had taken me half an hour to create (and it was unfinished, not to mention).

My second. Slightly easier. But only slightly.

So I settled on the field of tulips. Easy in terms of drawing. Plus, they got to add color. Definite win.

We first read Mike Venezia’s book on Leonardo Da Vinci.

  • Using a ruler, mark the edges of your paper at each inch.
  • Draw a horizon line somewhere in the top third.
  • Draw lines from your vanishing point to several marks along the edge of your page (below the horizon line)
  • Draw objects (houses, trees, windmills, etc.) along your horizon line.
  • Color the objects in with black sharpie.
  • Use watercolor pencils to draw tulips in each section.
  • Shade lightly over each section of tulips in the same color.
  • Use water and a brush to blend the pencil on the page.

Here’s a Powerpoint explaining the lesson in detail:

Leonardo Da Vinci One Point PerspectiveDownload

Sea life print – Elementary Art Lesson

Printmaking is such a fun medium to teach to elementary students. I try to do at least one lesson in block printing per year and it typically ends up being the favorite/most memorable for the kids.

I thought I’d go out on a limb with the fourth-graders and teach them how to do a reduction print of a sea animal. Before we began, however, I demonstrated the concept of a mirror image by having one of the students stand facing me and mirror my movements. We discussed how when I move my right hand, the student moved her left hand and vice versa. The point I tried to make was that when carving a block for printmaking (in our case, styrofoam), the resulting print will be a mirror image of that carving.

Here’s a brief explanation of the project:

  • Carve simple outline of sea creature.
  • Apply ink evenly using a brayer.
  • Press foam sheet face down on paper to make a print.
  • Carve details into foam and cut out sea creature.
  • Apply black ink to foam and place carefully face down on original print.
  • Press, remove and voila! Reduction print.

Below is the slideshow (Powerpoint) I used to introduce the project to the students. Feel free to use and adjust it to meet the needs of your classroom.

Sea Life Print PowerpointDownload

Paul Gauguin Watercolor Landscape

Paul Gauguin is such a downer to teach elementary students.  They love success.  They want to hear about artists who made a name for themselves while still living.  

No such luck when studying Gauguin.  He died sad and penniless, with nary a credit to his name.  Well, he’s certainly made his mark now.  Definitely an artist worth studying – and plenty of fodder for elementary art projects to boot.

I thought the fourth-graders would enjoy a stint using liquid watercolors.  In my mind, the vibrancy of color they provide most closely matches the colors used in Gauguin’s paintings.  

As always, I wanted to include an art principle, so despite the flatness and minimal perspective used in Gauguin’s works, I taught them about fore, middle and background, loosely using his Tahitian Landscape as a model.

  • Draw a simple background lightly in pencil.
  • Add a few things in the middle ground.
  • Draw at least one large object in the foreground.
  • Outline your entire drawing in black sharpie.
  • Add liquid watercolor to all white space, using colors one would not expect.

Here’s the slideshow I used to instruct the class on Paul Gauguin and to explain the steps of the project:

Gauguin – Watercolor Landscape (fore, middle and background)Download

Grandma Moses Watercolor – Elementary Art Lesson

At the beginning of each art lesson, I ask the students to venture a guess as to where the artist was from, based on the sound of their name.  Consequently, they’re learning that many of the “masters” originated in France (and Italy, and the Netherlands).  They are also discovering that the French drop the sounds of consonants at the end of their words, that Italian might be the easiest foreign language to pronounce, and that artists from the United States are multi-cultural (as one would expect in a pluralistic culture such as ours).

When I posited the question during this lesson on Grandma Moses, I got my favorite response of all time:  “I’m thinking she might have been from Egypt.”  After all, Moses was from Egypt.  Classic.  But no, I had to inform this worthy guesser that Grandma Moses was, in fact, from the United States.  Laughed out loud.

Sixth-graders are a great bunch to teach.  Most of them have dubbed themselves as either artists or non-artists by this point.  So the trick is to reel them in through art history, and/or use a medium with which they have little to no experience so they know they can chalk up any perceived failures to it being their first time.  In this lesson, we did both.

First, we read this book.  I’m a big fan of Mike Venezia’s series.  I especially enjoyed that he mentioned that Grandma Moses’ depictions of the simple life resulted from the lack of availability of modern technology.  Like movies, TV, and CD players.  No mention of handheld devices.  I checked the publication date: 2003.  Ancient history by now.

Second, I breezed through this powerpoint, giving a additional background on Grandma Moses, introducing a few art principles (horizon line, foreground, middle ground, and background), and explaining the project step-by-step.  Here it is, in a nutshell:

It worked out well.  In the assignment, kids were expected to include objects one might have found in a typical Grandma Moses scene.  Trees, fields, people, buildings, animals, a path or stream.  It kept them engaged and there was little to no mess, as a bonus.

Materials used: Watercolor pencils, watercolor paper (9X12)

Difficulty: Easy.  Sixth-graders were encouraged to take their time.  Most used up the full hour and a half they were given.  Instruction took about 30 minutes.

Op art weaving project.

I try to incorporate a wide variety of mediums into my art classes each year.  Though one wouldn’t initially think of weaving to teach op art, this project turned out to be fun.  Not to mention, the kids practiced a lesser-known skill.  I was a bit surprised by how foreign it was to several of the fifth-graders in the class I taught.

We began by learning about Victor Vasarely and studied a few of his works to identify the various components of op art.  This powerpoint presentation taught a few principles of op art and outlined the steps of the project.

It basically went like this:

I also created this printable, which I printed onto neon paper.  Each student selected his/her own shade of neon and was able to cut along the lines to obtain the correct size of paper strips to complete the project.

Stuart Davis Landscape – Elementary Art Lesson

This past week I taught the third-graders about Stuart Davis, considered somewhat of a pioneer in 20th century American art.  You can’t talk about Stuart Davis without mentioning the influence jazz music had on his art.  So, naturally, one must play jazz music while the students create.

I started with a brief biographical sketch about Stuart Davis.  We defined “urban landscape”, and discussed some of the features one might find in the city.  We then talked about the characteristics of jazz music-the way it takes original melodies and tweaks the chords and rhythms just so to create a distinctive sound.  I invited them to sing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” with me (in its original form) and then played a jazz version of it to give the kids a better idea of jazz.

Understanding jazz helped them better see how Stuart Davis depicted real-life objects/places in abstract ways.

I instructed the students to think of a familiar place: their childhood home, a grandparent’s house, a place they’ve visited.  I then asked them to think of a few notable characteristics of that place and list them on a piece of paper.  They then used paper to create a landscape of their chosen subject.

We used Yellowstone as an example.  Those familiar with Yellowstone listed the following things they could depict in a “Yellowstone landscape”: bison, geysers, mountains, rivers, a fox, tents, cameras.

I created the following  Powerpoint as a guideline for the lesson.

Elementary Art Lesson – Edward Hopper Lighthouse Watercolor

The fifth grade course of study in our school introduces the students to American realism, as exemplified by Edward Hopper.  In this lesson, we first read through * Mike Venezia’s biography on Edward Hopper.  Once the students experienced a healthy cross-section of the various subjects Hopper painted, we mimicked his style by using watercolor to create our own lighthouse painting.

The basics were as follows:

It’s a rather simple project, though having to draw something as realistically as possible proves to be a challenge for some students.  The subject of a lighthouse provides fifth-graders (or younger) a perfect opportunity to practice drawing three-dimensionally.  I created the following powerpoint presentation to instruct the students on each step of the art project:  Edward Hopper Lighthouse Watercolor Powerpoint

Materials used:* watercolor pencils, watercolor paper (9X12), black sharpie, pencil.

Difficulty: Easy to moderate.  Suitable for 4th-6th graders.

*This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click through and purchase any of the products, I will receive a commission, at no additional cost to you.

Holiday Pointillism – Elementary Art Lesson on Georges Seurat

The third grade art class I teach is scheduled to learn about Georges Seurat during the month of December.  What better subject to employ pointillism than holiday symbols?  Whenever Mike Venezia’s books are available on a particular artist, I kick off the lesson by reading his fun biographies (affiliate link).  The kids especially love the comics and it sets the stage for introducing a project in the style of whatever artist we are studying.

Here’s the lesson in short:

Materials needed: Pieces of cardboard, 7X10 multimedia paper, tempera or acrylic paint, paint palettes, cotton swabs.

Level of difficulty: For third-graders the idea of not mixing colors is difficult.  They require repeated reminders regarding the technique of pointillism.  Still, this project is relatively easy and should not take more than an hour, including reading the biography ahead of time.

I also created the following Powerpoint presentation: Holiday Pointillism to give the students detailed instructions on how to complete the project.

Two-tone Autumn Leaf Print

During a fourth/fifth grade art lesson, we covered the concepts of open and closed composition, then briefly explain block-printing.  I made sure to have plenty of band-aids on hand, since the carving tools are sharp.  We ended up maxing out at two band-aids, which isn’t too shabby for a class of over 25 ten and eleven year-olds.

I would hesitate to do this art lesson with just any class, since it requires a bit of tenacity unusual in many elementary-aged kids, but block-printing is a skill that is sometimes underutilized by volunteer art teachers so I was willing to take my chances.  Plus, it’s just plain fun.  The kids simply love it for its uniqueness so I don’t mind forking out some funds for at least one block-printing lesson per year.

I purchased most of my materials from dickblick.com so I have included the links to those specific items.  They are affiliate links, which means that if you purchase any of the products, I will receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.

Materials used: Linoleum carving tools, rubber-like carving block (4X6 inch), pencil, water-based printing ink, block-printing paper (or any smooth paper, if you prefer), brayers, sheet of plexiglass (or any flat surface, really)

Difficulty: Moderate to advanced for upper elementary grades

Feel free to use the following Powerpoint Presentation detailing the steps in this lesson:

Two-tone Autumn Leaf Print Powerpoint