First grade- Birch Trees in Autumn

I came across Simon Fairless' Silver Birch in Autumn painting and had to make a lesson out of it. It's so stinkin' beautiful! and perfect for Fall even though it doesn't actually start feeling crisp until January here in SoCal. This lesson was great for elements of art terms such as: repetition, lines, and space. We discussed how Fairless made some of the trees appear to be farther back by painting them darker and how the dark background contrasts nicely with the white trees.  After our discussion, students drew pairs of vertical lines across their page with short marks to distinguish the birch from the background. Then they mixed a dark gray and painted between the trees.  For the second class, students painted a few of the trees a light gray to push it back into the space. Once they were dried, they painted black dash marks on the bark. The leaves were created by dabbing a corner of a sponge in warm Fall colors. I love how they turned out.

Although I'm happy with them, it could have taken less time. This lesson took four classes, but I think it could have easily taken three at the most if I had given students colored sulphite paper. However, the background wouldn't have been as interesting.

Kindergarten- Fall Trees

Kindergarteners are starting off the year learning about color.  After reading them a fun book called Color Dance, students learned about primary colors and warm and cool colors (secondary colors will come later, starting off simple for now!). For the first part of the lesson, students painted circular clouds  of warm Fall colored leaves for their tree. Once that was dry, I dropped a tiny blob of ink at the bottom of their paper and they blew the ink through a straw for the trunk and spread it out into branches. It helps to tilt the paper down so the ink can flow better, and we don't want purple faced kinders! For the second class, students used cool colors to paint the sky. 

This is a favorite lesson of mine because students have so much fun mixing colors, especially seeing the water turn into a delicious "pink lemonade" or purple "Gatorade". It's a magical process. Plus, they get to blow ink through a straw and that is always a hit.