This Paul Klee/Mary Blair-inspired shape lesson was apart of a rotating stations that I did with my students. For my first thru fourth grade, my students rotated from station to station making a variety of shape-inspired art. These castles were one of the stations. The following art class, we added color and designs to these castles. You can check them out here!
Looking to dive into a little printing? This lesson is one I do with my kindergarten students but kids of all ages have enjoyed it! All you need are some foam stickers and a large foam shape for the background. I found these hearts at the dollar store but I've also used foam stars too! You can check out this lesson here.
Here is a little look at the printing plates created with stars in the background. This was apart of my shape making stations! Details on that here.
After students are finished printing with their plates, the plates can be turned into some super cool metal art! You can check out that process here.
If you are interested in doing elements of art stations in your art room, I made a video to walk you and your students through the process. You can find it here.
During 2020, I did a series of videos on robots...that all feature the element of art of SHAPE. This first one is all about drawing robots and using shapes. You can find that video here.
Did I mention that there are several TOTALLY FREE downloads? Yep! Check them out here!
I always love doing collagraphs with my students. Start hoarding those cereal and snack boxes as that cardboard is thin and easy to cut. These can be created by doing crayon rubbings as I did here or you could use brayers and printing ink. Find the video lesson here.
You could also take it in a totally different direction by covering the collagraph with foil and doing marker prints! This type of printing is always one the kids love! Details here.
I recently created a lesson with my friends over at Prang using (my favorite!) their Tru-Ray construction paper and Prang's white school glue. You can find the lesson, with the step-by-step process here!
Several years ago, I started doing these shape sculptures with my students when we were finished with our unit on LINE. And I realized...I never shared that lesson with you in video form!
So, I thought I'd create a new video for you and your artists in case you are ready to dive into the wonderful world of SHAPES!
Some troubleshooting for this lesson:
* You'll probably want to start with either a 12" square of paper or a sheet of 9" X 12" construction paper to create the cube.
* So that your students will be able to create shapes that are a good size for the cube, you'll want rectangles of paper that are 12" X 2"
* You'll need glue! Glue sticks may work in a pinch...but I find that the hold is better with glue.
* OF COURSE, you'll probably want a good book to read for your shape lesson. How about THIS ONE?! ;)
You could do this lesson any number of ways!
For a quick version, you may wish to leave the construction paper blank. This allows the shapes to really take center stage.
OR...you could use paint sticks or ink-filled bingo daubers and have students do a little bit of a line review. In the video, I wanted to share all three versions! Personally, I like the plain background best but I am always looking for a good review and the lines in the background does just that.
One of the lessons that came out of those shape stations was this Paul Klee meets Mary Blair inspired castle project. Today, I thought I'd repackage the lesson into one video that will walk your artists through the process.
Now, this lesson can be as simple as making printed castles all the way up to using chalk pastels and adding a background. I'll leave that up to you! Just know that I wanted to cater the video to your art teacherin' needs. So keep it a one-day activity with castle printing or take it beyond (as I did with my older students) and add more art supplies.
By the way, using puffy paint with students IS NOT for the faint of heart. You gotta keep an eagle eye on those kids when they are using puffy paint or they will ruin their artwork in a blink. So...I recommend doing it in small groups with you or a trustworthy student as the monitor. Trust me on this one!
This lesson is a long one...if you decide to go the whole thing, just so you know! But the results are pretty fun.
Of course, you can also skip the cutting out of the castles and adding to the background. Instead, simply have students add "snow" or stars to the background paper to add a little more interest. Maybe even glitter!? BUT that might be a little too much.
Of course, if you are introducing students to shape, might I recommend MY book?! You can find it here!
No matter what you do, I hope you and your artists have fun creating!
Hi, y'all! I know, I can hardly believe it either: two blog posts with two lessons in one week?! What can I say, when the ideas start rollin', it's hard to stop 'em!
So, truth be told, every since I started adding slightly diluted tempera paint to my bingo daubers, I've been coming up with all sorts of fun art lessons! I have several 'in the can' and I'm working to bring them to you and your artists as fast as I can. To always stay up-to-date on my free video lessons, you may want to join my email list! You can do that here.
Like my most recent videos, I'll start this one with a bit of a Teacher Talk to walk you through the prep for this lesson. I would say this project is appropriate for kindergarten through 3rd grade, depending on what it is you hope to cover with your students. Meaning, if you find that you have older students who need a simple project to remind them of your painting procedures, this may be it! And if you have younger students who are ready to dive into the land of shapes, this one's for you.
OF COURSE, the best book for the job is Alfred the Ape Knows his Shapes! This book covers EVERYTHING...I really wanted to create a book that wasn't your basic baby shape book like so many out there. I wanted to dive in to organic, geometric, the difference between a form and a shape and so much more!
And now, for the lesson video:
I found that for this lesson, the prep was pretty easy. I mean, filling those empty bingo daubers was not fun BUT...once they are done, they do last. You can find the empty bingo daubers here.
I created this lesson because I thought many of you may be moving on from LINE themed lessons to now...shapes! If you'd like to see my Top Ten Line Themed lessons, visit here!
And in case you missed my other super fun and colorful painting lesson, see it here.
Oh! AND my cardboard line sculpture lesson! It's here.
I just love how colorful these are. I think what really does it is that different colors used for the outline.
For my personal art, I kinda want to paint some funky still life paintings using this method. Kind of a pop art meets cubism. What do you think?!
I hope you have a chance to try this lesson out! If you do, please lemme know, I would love to see.
Hey, friends! I'm coming to you today with a lesson that has been rolling around in my head for a while. I know this time of the school year, so many of us focus on LINES and I thought this painting project, that could serve as a school-wide collaborative, would be perfect!
Like my more recent lesson videos, I'm doing a little bit of a teacher-talk at the start of the video to walk you through the prep process. There isn't much but I do think it's important.
I find that templates work great and just make one per table! Then the kids can add the tick marks so they know where to start and end their first lines. I think the mural would work best if those first lines were all the same. I decided to use a dark blue.
If you do this lesson and post on social media, please be sure and tag me, I'd love to see what you and your artists create! Please do not rewrite this lesson and sell on TPT as your own...I hate to say that every post but, it happens!
Labels: elementary art, vintage clothing
cassie stephens,
kindergarten lessons,
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shape art lessons,
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