Kandinsky One-offs...

So we had a little extra time in several of my elementary school classes. I wanted them to do something still related to Kandinsky, since that's who we had been studying, so I showed them his Color Study Squares: Concentric Circles:

They loved this painting... Its so colorful! I also got to teach them a new vocabulary word, we figured out by studying the painting what the word "concentric" means.

Here are some of the beautiful color studies they did:

Kandinsky Watercolors Sing!

After studying Kandinsky's life and artistic process the elementary students got to work! I played Vivaldi's Four Seasons while they closed their eyes and tried to see colors and shapes in the music. They started by drawing what they saw. I gave them shapes to trace or they could draw freehand and then went over their pencil lines with Sharpies. In the next session I played the same music and they painted in their pictures with watercolors. The results are beautiful!

Kandinsky: 5th Grade Preliminary Drawing Exercise

Wow...What a great class this morning! The students saw my iPod and speakers and immediately were asking me if they could listen to this that or the other rap artist, dance hall, etc. Unfortunately the answer was no - I wanted them to listen to classical music just as Kandinsky had. I brought in Vivaldi's The Four Seasons and had the 5th graders listen while they closed their eyes. I asked them to pretend they were Kandinsky and imagine what kinds of shapes and colors they would see. After the first song (Spring) they were all pretty enthusiastic about what they had seen while they were listening.

For the rest of the class period I played all the songs on a loop while the students drew shapes and colors on white paper. They came out great... and these are only the prep drawings for their paintings. Even better, many of the students kept saying how much they loved listening to the music!

Here are some great drawings they did:

Victor

Enzo

Christian

Chloe

Upping the Ante with a Little More Art History

After teaching the elementary classes about Van Gogh, mosaics, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Winslow Homer, I realized they were doing great on the art part, but not really retaining much in the art history department. I decided to do a little research and came across this great site with a worksheet format that I used and changed a bit to suit what I wanted to do with it. Here are the printables I created, one for 1st and 2nd grade, and one for 3rd, 4th and 5th:

1st and 2nd grade