Paisleys Are Perfect

 Found this awesome book at a new store in the neighborhood  5 and Below, it cost me $5 and I knew it would inspire many lessons. The first of which was the page on drawing paisleys.

I did this lesson with my 1st and 2nd graders. I did a quick review with my students on different lines, the direction a line might go in and how to use lines to create patterns.  I have noticed in the past that many of my students don't have the vocabulary words for the different patterns found on clothing. They also don't understand when I refer to something as being a solid color. I felt this lesson would be a wonderful time to introduce some of those words.  The fabric samples below either came from my stash or were purchased at JoAnne's Fabric. Students enjoyed learning about fabric and textiles and I got to teach them a bunch of NEW words!!

 Many of the older students saw this on the board and want to know when they would be doing this.  I just might pull this together and leave it for a sub to do with them.

 

 I photocopied the page on the right from the book to use as inspiration. Students did have tracers for the shape of the paisleys. They had a small, medium and large paisley shapes they could use. The paisleys need to float on the paper not overlap and placement was their choice.

 

 

 

   

 When they finish drawing them, they started to outline them with black Sharpies. Next time they will use watercolors to paint their paisleys.

Thought I was reaching a little on this lesson. However, they did an awesome job considering how young they are. 

Had PLC training on Tuesday. It was overwhelming and a bit confusing. Basically Art along with Music and P.E. are considered Interdisciplinary PLCs and we can collaborate on standards and common assessments to create a goal. Not worthy of a full blog post. Totally not the fun part of teaching!

Would love to know what lessons you teach for patterns!

Thanks for reading!!
And if you teach in Florida and are planning to attend the conference next month I will be doing a workshop on using museum activities in your art room titled Look! Listen! And Learn! And a presentation on blogging titled Born to Blog. Hope to meet you there!