Line Drawing to Music

I've done this lesson before, and it's always a hit.
I started with my repeating my favorite quote, "A line is a dot that went for a walk," by Paul Klee, and demonstrated a few of the many different ways a dot could walk. 

Next we read the book Along a Long Road by Frank Viva, noticing that the cyclist was like the dot that made a line through the city. The kindergarteners loved chanting back each "line" of text on the page. 

I put out markers, crayons, and colored pencils for choice. I also used small, long sheets of paper. 

For inspiration, I played music. The songs I chose this time were:
I love you, Too by Ziggy Marley
Let's Go by Calvin Harris ft. Ne-Yo
any song on the Amelie soundtrack, and
peaceful MetaMusic called Enchanted Forest. 

Most kinders did not stick to one page per song, but moved on as they liked. Some wanted to make a book by stapling their pages together. A few older students wanted to make a book as well, and for some of the older ones who felt bored, I was able to convince them to look back into their abstract drawings and find some meaning and keep drawing into it to make it look more like something. They thought that was cool when I looked at it and told them what I saw. Then they took over and told me what they saw and kept drawing. 

I noticed that students always want to dance and talk during the faster songs, but are quiet and more mellow during the slower songs. I like to sandwich my fast songs with mellow ones. I don't recommend songs with words, but it didn't seem to distract the lesson in any way.

Overall, easy set up and clean up, yet still fun and engaging!

Ukranian Eggs: Pysaty Folk Design

More lines, colors, shapes, and patterns!

This Easter-timed, but culturally-focused work follows our discussion about story-telling in art.

Each color and pattern on a Ukranian egg represents a story. The word pysaty itself means "to write" with beeswax.

I found this fabulous, old-school Reading Rainbow featuring Patricia Polacco dying pysaty after they read her book, Rechenka's Eggs.

I did this lesson with Kinderhaus first, then tried it with older grades. I wasn't planning on doing it with Middle School, but when they saw the eggs they wanted to, too. A few middle school girls are even planned an egg hunt for the Kindergarteners using the eggs they designed.

I have found that although the watercolor crayon-resist method would make the most sense in this lesson, students have more control of their designs when they just use marker.

Of course another egg-stention of this lesson would be to try to actually dye the eggs in the traditional method, but I wasn't ready for that this year. We'll see about next year.

At the bottom of this post, I copied the symbols and color meanings of the designs from http://graphicoriginals.com/history.html.

Symbols    drawings of symbols (will open in a new window)
Sun, circles- life, warmth and the love of God
Swastika- a common motif for happiness, blessings, good fortune and good will.
Tripod- a solar symbol known from Trypillian times meaning a trinity: birth, life, death; man, woman, child; the magical number 3
Star or rose-usually 8 pointed but also 6 and 5 pointed in ancient times signifying purity, life, the giver of light, the center of all knowledge, beauty, elegance and perfection; the eye or divine will of God, symbol of God's love for man. Today sun and cosmic symbols signify happiness, prosperity and good fortune
Triangles-a trinity; formerly air, fire, water or the heavens, earth and air. Now the Holy Trinity is meant.
Lines-unbroken to not break the thread of life
Sieve-dividing good from evil
Basket-contained knowledge, motherhood, the giver of life and gifts
Rakes-rays from the sun, reference to harvest
Spirals-divinity or immortality
Grape vine-continuity, good fellowship and strong, loyal love; as the wine of communion-the love of God and of Christ for mankind
Deer- leadership, masculinity and victory
Horse- an ancient sign for the sun, believed in ancient times to pull the sun across the sky; therefore, wealth, properity, speed and endurance
Ram- perseverence, dignity, leadership and strength
Rooster- coming good fortune, for men it predicts a rich married life with many children
Hen- fertility
Spider-patience, artistry and industry
Hen's feet-protection of the earth toward her young; guidance of the young in their search for knowledge
Horns-nobility, wisdom and triumph over problems; an implication of manhood and leadership
Wolves' teeth-loyalty, wisdom and a firm grip
Churches-appeared at the time of Christianity, used only in western Ukraine
Birds- precursors of spring
Fish- symbol for Christ and Christians
Netting- separating good from evil
Crosses-in many shapes, usually to represent Christ's suffering
Meander lines- eternal life
Ladders- prayer and rising to Heaven
Wheat- generous harvest
Pine needles- eternal life
Dots- stars and constellations
Flowers- wisdom, elegance and beauty
Leaves and flowers- life and growth

Colors
White-purity, virginity, innocence and birth
Green-renewal, spring, hope, health and victory of life over death, freedom from bondage
Yellow-light and purity, harvest, warmth, wisdom, youth
Orange-endurance, strength, ambition, the everlasting sun, the red of passion tempered by the yellow of wisdom
Red-a positive color for passion, action, fire, spiritual awakening, divine love, used especially for children and youth
Black- constancy, eternity, used with white as respect for departed souls, also fear or ignorance
Purple- fasting, faith, patience and trust
Brown- mother earth, bringing forth bountiful gifts
Blue- blue skies, life-giving air, is a talisman of good health
Pink- success, contentment
4 or more colors- family happiness, peace and love

Monochromatic Robots

I needed a way to name my art room tables, plan seating charts, and introduce my students to the new order in the room. (We gave it a few weeks to see if they needed to have a seating chart, and yeah, the upper elementary grades did.)

Each table was named a color of the ROYGBIV rainbow, plus a "neutral" table because I have 8 tables.

This table naming lent itself well to our next lesson: MONOCHROMATIC ROBOTS!

I am currently enrolled in Deep Space Sparkle's Teaching Art 101 ecourse to give me a little tune up on project ideas. Drawing robots was one of Patty's ideas, and I tweaked it to fit my needs.

MATERIALS:
Shapies - fat and thin
Crayons - I had mine already sorted into separate baskets of ROYGBIV colors.
White paper - I think my paper was about 12x20"

VOCAB WORDS:
LINE
SHAPE
MONOCHROMATIC
TINT
SHADE
CROSS HATCHING (for upper el)

QUESTIONS
Does your robot have a job?
Does it have a name?
Did you repeat shapes?

When these were finished I hung them up in the hallway in ROYGBIV order and they looked fabulous. And THEN the kids really started having ah-ha moments about what monochromatic really meant.

 

2nd Grade Robot

My example

2nd grade

Orange Monochromatic Robots -- with many shades and tints of orange in the basket

2nd Grade-- Kids clothing often times matches their work!

ROYGBIV hallway! I kept repeating the pattern on both sides of the walls. 

A little video interviewing a 3rd grade student about her Robot Book. (Not sure why the image is flipped...)