Lines that Wiggle Monster Collages

I am currently doing a unit on literacy, and reading children's books to inspire art lessons for my youngest artists. For this project we read the book Lines that Wiggle by Candace Whitman, and then stood up and pretended to be different types of lines.

Then they created a collage based on the cover illustration. First they glued pre-cut shapes to create the image of a monster sitting down to a bowl of spaghetti. They used crayons to decorate the table, the bowl, and their monsters. Lastly, they "drew with glue" to create the wiggly lines of spaghetti in the monster's mouth, the bowl and spilling onto the table. After drawing they covered their glue lines with black glitter and added googly eyes. To add skills to this lesson you could make templates to trace and cut the monster, it's mouth and the bowl.

 

Did I mention that my favorite part of this lesson was getting to hear everyone's pronunciation of the word spaghetti? So cute! Pasketti monsters have a lovely ring, don't you think?

Continuous Line Paintings: Inspired by Geoff Slater

I recently subbed in the art room and was asked if I had a one class lesson plan I would like to work on while I was there. I used this lesson that I originally saw at: kinderart.com. They have a great visual step-by-step lesson plan that you can check out.

We looked at works by Geoff Slater and saw that they were painted in one continuous line. We worked with the goal of two lines: one to fill the flower and one to fill the background. I also let them know that even if they used more than two lines that it would be fine. As long as their paintings resembled a maze, they were accomplishing the goal of a work inspired by the artist.

Students had a choice of painting a daisy-flower shape or a tulip-styled flower, which I had examples of on the blackboard. They also had the option of using realistic or non-realistic colors. This is a great lesson for watercolor technique and brush control, because the students need to use the tip of the brush and they need to have the right consistency of paint to pull their maze lines along the paper.

Sometimes it is difficult for the children to remember that you pull your paint brush, not scrub with it. And you need to add a bit of water to the pan of color and gently wiggle the brush to loosen the paint, not mash it into the pan! For this lesson too, watch carefully when they begin to paint. Some students just revert to filling in the areas with their paint brush, rather than creating continuous lines. Correct early and things go smoothly from there on!

Positive/Negative Space Trees

First graders finished a unit on line this fall and also learned about positive and negative space. On black construction paper we learned to draw a tree with bare branches. These branches needed to reach the edges of the paper to create different areas of negative space. When the children were happy with their drawings, they traced the lines of their trees with white construction paper crayons— I LOVE THESE! Especially when used on black paper.

The trees (positive space) were not to be colored, so they remained solid black. All of the areas between the branches of the trees (negative space) were filled in with many different colors and types of line. The children took their time and did a great job completing these projects. Here are some of their masterpieces.