The following are some examples of my art lessons from Summit Montessori (K-6) and Woodside Montessori (grades 1-8), where I served as each school’s Visual Art Teacher.  Examples are presented by age group in ascending order, starting with Kindergarten.

Kindergarten

This being the first time in a studio art class for many, students enjoyed celebrating the simple, beautiful geometric shape: the circle. We read “The Dot” and looked at works by Wassily Kandinsky, Sonia Delaunay and others. This was a fun way for them to practice tracing, cutting, stamping, and gluing. 

 

Collages based on Eric Carle’s “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” Students created texture in paint, assembled the body of a bear, drew leaves and tried chalk pastels for the first time.

Line Studies and Primary and Secondary Color Lesson- Tempera Paints

This lesson is always successful in teaching them all about the many types of lines, letting them practice handling a paintbrush and teaching about the color wheel and primary colors. For the second painting they love to mix their own secondary colors. For this unit we read “Lines that Wiggle” by Candace Whitman and “Mouse Paint” by Ellen Walsh.

 

Students learned painting techniques with liquid watercolors and salt, and acrylic paints and combs in these mixed media collages based on the book “The Winter Bird” by Kate Banks.

Lower Elementary (Grades 1-3)

Fall Trees Collages- based on simple shapes and basic printmaking techniques: using the side of cardboard to make branches and other objects to create patterns. Based on the illustrations of Eloise Renouf.

 

For the following project we looked at cave art from all over the world, specifically Lascaux in France and Cueva de las Manos in Argentina. We had many interesting discussions, such as repeating symbols, and how it is that people who never met each other, from opposite sides of the world made such similar cave art? Watercolors, oil pastels and chalk pastels. 

su     

Clay/ resin and painted Koi fish “Ponds”. Students were shown the many different patterns and colorations of the Koi fish and it significance in various cultures. Air-dry clay, acrylic paint, resin

1st-3rd grade students looked at the painting “The Starry Night” by Vincent Van Gogh and other examples of how a painting style and sky can be expressive. Within the same project they learned the basics of perspective, how to layer mediums for a fuller effect (pastels over paint) and about cast shadows.

 

Open ended Mixed Media Collages with Recycled Papers

Throughout the year I love to insert more open-ended projects, and let students play with composition and experiment with combining mediums. Here, they were tasked to help make good use of the accumulating “oops” papers and collage materials, and to combine paint pens and oil pastels in interesting ways. They loved the freedom of this!

Timed around a field trip to the Worcester Art Museum to see an exhibit by Faith Ringgold, students engaged in a project based on her artwork “Tar Beach” and her children’s book of the same name. In the process they learned about metaphor, dreams, personal meaning and narrative in Faith Ringgold’s story quilts. After reading the story about the artist’s childhood memory of a very special place, they were asked to make a dream-like artwork of a place they would like to fly over and “own”, like the child in the story.   Watercolors, colored pencils, fabric collage.

  

Calder-Inspired Standing Mobiles

   by Alexander Calder

Students were learning about engineering, so I introduced them to an artist who was also an engineer: Alexander Calder. They learned how he combined his knowledge to create new modern kinds of sculptures: “mobiles” and “stabiles”. First, students played with cardstock to design their “stabile”, or stable base. Then they created the final version in cardboard, then added the balancing branches and cascades of wire and “petals”, what Calder called his decorative counter weights. This was a balancing challenge, but the students loved the results!

Textile Art

Students learned about the sculptural possibilities of fabric, when they were given a piece of silk and were asked to dip it in glue/water, and let it dry in interesting ways. They added fabric swatches, yarn, or anything else they could to create a composition. When it dried they had fun adding stitching, and knitted elements.

Upper Elementary (grades 4-6) 

Minnie Evans-inspired Symmetry Name Designs

by Minnie Evans

In this whole-school beginning of the year project, students learned about American visionary artist Minnie Evans who created symmetrical, intricate designs based on her dreams. Students then wrote their names in black-glue on folded paper, added some blobs of tempera paint, folded the paper again, and pressed to create a symmetrical design. They then added watercolor paint, oil pastels and many dream-like details. Their main tasks: Create defined forms out of “blobs’, add layers, and keep the balance and symmetry.

   

Kehinde Wiley inspired self portraits.

Students learned about the proportions of the face and head, and the power of observation as they carefully drew themselves with a mirror. They were taught about cast shadow and form shadow, and effective use of colored pencils in shading and other media for the background. We looked at the portraits of Kehinde Wiley, and how a “background”, or negative space, is not only just as important as the subject, and can provide clues as to the identity of the sitter.

   

Islamic Art and Geometry

In this truly fascinating unit, students learned about the history of Islamic Art and how they use geometry to reflect harmony, balance, and the infinite nature of creation. They saw how artists create intricate patterns with repeating, tessellating shapes like stars and polygons, to symbolize unity and the divine without using images of people or animals. Then they engaged in three projects: a paper folding and cutting method to create radial symmetry, a “tile” demonstrating radial symmetry made with a compass and ruler, then they took it a step further and were shown how to use the compass and ruler to create tessellating designs. 

  Inspirational Islamic Art

 

Bestiary Creatures! 

Students were studying the Middle Ages, so I re-used a project where they learn about this form of Medieval storytelling and entertainment. They invented hybrid creatures, then painted and drew them, complete with a “gold leaf” border, in a way that mimics the centuries old illuminated manuscripts. They wrote stories that blended myth, moral lessons, and natural observation, including a first illuminated letter. Bestiary tales were adventurous or cautionary tales, mixing wonder with teachings about good, evil, and the mysteries of the natural world.

Abstract Expressionism

Students were introduced to various artists such as Jackson Pollack, Mark Rothko and Lee Krasner who helped develop this art movement that started in the United States about 80 years ago. They learned how these artists often used bold colors, energetic brushstrokes, and spontaneous techniques to convey inner feelings. Instead of painting recognizable subjects, they aimed to create a powerful emotional experience for the viewer. Students loved making abstract compositions to convey their emotions.

Peruvian (Sican) Funerary Masks

Since Upper Elementary students were learning about ancient South American civilizations, I thought they would like this project where we create Sican-inspired 11th century funerary masks. In the process they learned all about goldsmithing, cinnabar, and the various arts and crafts of this early Peruvian culture. 

Inspirational artifact, Museum of Fine Arts, NYC