We began this colorful project by learning about abstract art. When I explain abstract art to the younger grades, I tell them that it is art with lots of lines, colors and shapes but nothing recognizable. There is no cat or house, etc. I was proud to hear that after this first class, students were using markers to create abstract art in their classroom during free time. The first day of this project, students used lots of warm colors like yellow, pink and orange to fill their paper with color. They used tempera paints and different tools such as sponge brushes, stamps, marker caps, cardboard scraps, etc to create a colorful abstract painting. The second day, they did the same thing but used cool colors such as blue, turquoise and green and added layers of patterns on top of the warm colors. They were instructed to just have fun and experiment.
I also showed them how to paint trees by first painting a large tall triangle in the middle of the paper and adding big branches reaching to the sky. Then they added little branches reaching to the sky off of the big branches. Watching the students paint these trees was really magical as if seeing their artwork really come to life.
I absolutely LOVE how this art project turned out and am proud of the students for being so exploratory and brave as they tried new things in the art room.