A City of Warm and Cool Colors

As an art teacher I am always looking to change out a lesson to just do something different or more exciting. The internet has been such a remarkable source of inspiration for all of us. And that is where I found this lesson a few years ago when I was looking for another way to teach my students about warm and cool colors.

I found this lesson here on There's a Dragon in my Art Room, a blog written by Phyllis Levine Brown. I've had the opportunity to meet up with Phyl during NAEA conferences.

Here's a photo from New York 2017. Phyl, Rachel Hessing Wintemberg who blogs the Helpful Art Teacher and me.

This is a really good lesson to get students thinking about perspective. And while they don't completely get the concept (tricky concept for elementary students.....) it helps a little.

Here is my storyboard, something I started at the end of last year. While technology is wonderful, I believe my students benefit from a constant visual to look at.

 

You can see just how easy each of the steps are. I did have students practice in their sketchbooks before doing it on the large paper with Sharpies. That was a big help.
        Students start out with arrows, extend the line to the bottom edge.

 

 They add windows, I did point out using parallel lines to make the windows, some got it and some didn't. Then add the concentric circles.

 

Decide whether to use the warm colors on the buildings or the sky. Then use the cool colors on the sky or the buildings. Students used crayons, I went over the color wheel with them. Included all 12 colors and we decided red violet would be warm and yellow green would be cool. I had the colors separated and we started out by using only the warm colors until they understood the assignment.

   

 

 

 

I just did this lesson with my 2nd graders and I'm really happy with the way it turned out. And since it was so close to Halloween when we started the project, students added their own holiday flourish to their art.

 

Thanks Phyl for a really great lesson!

How do you teach warm and cool colors? I'd love to hear from you!

Thanks for Reading!

Happy Trees!

The last two weeks before the "Winter Break" aka Christmas Vacation were spent making happy trees with my students in 2nd-5th grade. I know many teachers out there don't want to get into the whole holiday scene and many of you are not even allowed to. However, we embrace it at my school. We have a Santa who brings hats, scarves and mittens to our students in k-2nd grade. Which are provided by a local community of retired adults who have adopted our school.  And a Santa who comes to have hot chocolate and cookies with the children. 

Since my 4th and 5th graders were already experienced at making pop up cards which you can read about in this post.  I thought we would do these Christmas trees which I found here by Robert Sabuda.

 

 Print out the pattern on card stock. Score the broken lines (I used a pointed stick).

 

 Fold on the middle line. Cut on the heavy solid line.

And then pop through to the other side.

 

 

Decorate inside. Use double stick tape to attach to the outside of the card, which should also be card stock.

 

 

Use some interesting lettering to decorate the outside of the card. Ways to connect this to the curriculum: designing greeting cards as a career, learning about different fonts and typography, using paper to create 3D art, and developing self expression.

My 2nd and 3rd graders also did trees and I used the book: If Picasso Had a Christmas Tree  in the photo below to inspire them.

The book has trees created in the style of a wide variety of artists done by art teachers. I put postcards up on the board of artwork done by the actual artists that were emulated in the book. Children were to match the trees in the book to the postcards on the board. It was a blast! It always amazes me when I try this type of activity and the students have so much fun.

To tie this into the curriculum we reviewed lines and patterns and then 2nd graders were taught about warm and cool colors.

 

 

3rd graders were taught about complementary colors.

   

And for any early finishers I had this amusing Roll a Snowman sheet for them that I found here.

 I had some dice on hand from when I had a sub do this Lego activity.

Below are a couple of cute snowman made by my little ones.

 

What were all of you doing last week with your students? I would love to hear about it!

 Have a wonderful holiday break and thanks for reading!!