African Kente Cloth- paper weaving~ Year 1-2

Another successful lesson I did with Year 1 & 2 exploring art from different cultures (World Culture Art) was this paper weaving with added shapes and lines to represent to colourfully patterned cloth woven in Ghana, Africa. This idea is not original, I have seen it on many websites and there is a great video Kente paper weaving on YouTube showing the process to weave the paper and add geometric patterns to resemble / represent the patterns woven into the brightly coloured cloth.

Students chose an A4 coloured cover paper to cut up to a line 3cm from the top, then chose three CONRASTING coloured strips to weave through in a repeated pattern, eg. red, blue, yellow/ red, blue, yellow..

A tip to make weaving easier and faster is to pick up every second strip with the colour just woven and slip the next strip under, then wiggle it up to touch the squares above.

Lastly they add a simple pattern or shape to the background colour squares that they wove onto.

Next step is to add GEOMETRIC patterns. I drew some examples on the whiteboard and we talked about the difference between geometric and organic lines and shapes. I had the students try some in their scrap book first, using straight lines and geometric shapes like squares, rectangles and triangles. They could try some of the patterns on a handout sheet or make up their own. Students used black fine liners like ‘Sharpies’ and ‘Prockey’ markers for thicker lines. They had to do the same pattern on each of the same coloured squares. White pens were also used on darker colours if they chose.

Victorian Curriculum aligned visual art lesson plan with learning intentions, success criteria, lesson steps, links to useful websites and stories, template to print 2 widths for the weaving ‘card’ depending on the experience with weaving, a reference sheet to copy for geometric pattern designs and a reflection/ evaluation sheet for students.

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Mexican Amate ‘Bark’ Art ~ Year 1/2

As part of a theme of world culture art, Year 1 & 2 looked at some traditional paintings on bark from Mexico. Students viewed amate paintings depicting flowers, birds and images from nature all in bright colours, outlined in black. We discussed the use of bright colours, size and placement of objects, for example one or two birds taking up most of the space, surrounded by flowers.

Amate comes from the Nahuatl word ‘amatl’ (paper) and is an ancient tradition of paper making made using the bark of fig and mulberry trees. To make amate, the outer tree bark is peeled and the inner bark is boiled and soaked in water overnight, then beaten with a smooth flat stone until the fibres fuse into a pulp. The pulp is molded and left to dry in the sun.

Firstly students practised drawing some birds in to their scrap books using printed out reference sheets as a guide. Then they chose one or two birds to draw ‘big’ onto 80gsm brown kraft paper in pencil first. They had a choice to use square of rectangle paper.

Oil pastels were used to colour in the birds and flowers, blending colours together with on finger. The paper was then crumpled to resemble the texture of bark paper like Amate.

AU$3.00

Lesson plan is aligned to the Victorian Curriculum, with learning intentions, success criteria, lesson steps and activities. There are two levelled reflection / evaluation sheets, plus five sheets of drawing reference sheets.

AU $3.00 for email download of Amate Art lesson

Mola Art ~ Year 1-2

World Culture Art lesson inspired by Mola art from San Blas Islands in Panama

Mola art is a panel sewn onto the front and back of the blouse or dress made and worn by the Kuna/Guna women from the San Blas Islands in Panama. It is traditionally made with layers of colourful fabric and the technique of reverse applique by cutting away parts of each layer to reveal a colour shape then turning under and sewing down the edges creating patterns and pictures of birds, fish, animals, flowers and plants.

Our art lesson captures the colour, shapes, patterns and layers using skills of collage: cutting out shapes and arranging to fill the space. Lots of concepts and skills- colour, line, shape, space, size, cutting, overlaying, arranging, pasting. I drew simple shapes of animals, fish and flowers to print out onto coloured cover paper for children to choose their shape (or students could draw their own shape)

They cut out their shape, chose a contrast colour to glue it onto, traced around it then cut out around the shape. They repeated this two more times before gluing to black paper to fill the negative space with coloured strips and shapes.

Victorian Curriculum Lesson for Year 1-2 with learning intentions, success criteria, lesson steps, links to useful videos or slides, shape pictures to copy onto A4 coloured paper (or to make shapes to trace) and a reflection or review sheet /activity to complete as a class or well suited to Year 2 to complete individually.

AUD $3.00 email download of lesson plan

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Koru: Māori Art from New Zealand ~ Year 1-2

Koru is a spiral shape representing the unfurling fern and is an integral symbol in Maori art from New Zealand. It symbolises new life, growth, strength and peace. This project was one of a few lessons I did with Year 1-2 students on art from different cultures. I had done it may years ago successfully with a Prep class and wanted the Year 1-2 students to add a little more detail. We looked at the Koru art of Raewyn Harris from New Zealand as well as various drawings and tattoos with the koru shape.

It’s a good idea to get the students to practise drawing a spiral shape BIG so they can return the line out of the centre. We used black ink daubers to get the thick black lines. Next step was painting!

Victorian Curriculum Lesson plan for Year 1/2 with learning intentions success criteria, lesson activity steps, useful video and website links, example work.

AUD $2 for email download of this lesson

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Bush Medicine Leaves~ Year 1-2

Students in Year 1/2 were learning about Aboriginal traditions and their use of leaves as medicine from ‘nature’s pharmacy’. We watched a YouTube video explaining various leaves from the bush and their use to treat different ailments. The lesson project is from Japingka Aboriginal Art website which has some wonderful art lesson plans. Check it out!

The lesson looks at the Bush Medicine art of Rosemary Petyarre, and we also looked at an artwork I own, also titled Bush Medicine Leaves by Rosemary Pitjara. We compared the artworks and discussed the movement in each.

We used liquid watercolours to paint a piece of paper in stripes or bands blending the edges, and also a spray of water to further add interest.

The black background paper has texture added with paint sponged, scraped and dabbed to create a sense of the bush or forest floor.

Students traced a gum leaf onto card, cut it out and used as a template to trace as many shapes as they could on the back of their watercolour paper. They then arranged these onto the background paper in a way that shows ‘movement’.

Students then used Zart white Perma Pens as a quicker method of dotting around the leaf shapes to highlight them.

Colourful Cats! Andy Warhol inspired: Year 1/2 art lesson

A great lesson to do in a unit on pets. We used Andy Warhol’s ’25 Cats’ as inspiration for these drawings of cats in all sorts of positions. Before Warhol was well known, he published a book with lots of illustrations of cats. Warhol was living with his Mum in New York and at one time he had 25 cats cohabiting in the apartment!!

LESSON ACTIVITIES:

View video about Andy Warhol’s “25 cats” and look at his pictures.

What do you see? What else do you notice about the pictures? What do you think he used to draw and colour the pictures? (eg. black outline in ink, not all realistic colours.)

Students followed some directed drawing (and some youtube tutorials) of cats in different positions. (in greylead pencil) to fit four differnt cats on their paper.

They then used a fine point waterproof marker (like Sharpie), added short lines to add texture for the cat’s fur, then & different coloured food dye wash colour on each cat.

FULL LESSON with learning intentions, success criteria, Victorian curriculum links, youtube video links used to draw cats in different positions, and assessment/self evaluation rubric.

AUD $2 for email download of this lesson plan

Farm Scene with George the Farmer- Year 1/2 Mixed Media Art lesson

This project tied in with our “Picasso Cow Program” where the school was involved in learning about the dairy industry and the health benefits of eating dairy products. The “Discover Dairy” website was a wealth of information with loads of short informative videos.

Firstly, I posed some questions to students to see what their prior knowledge of dairy farms was: What is a DAIRY farm? What does a dairy farmer do? What do dairy farmers do besides milk cows?

We watched some videos from Discover Dairy to give students an insight into life on a dairy farm and were useful to learn about what happens on a typical dairy farm to prompt discussion.

‘George the Farmer’ is a character created by two people from farming backgrounds whose vision is ‘a world where children connect to the earth, food and farm’. Based in regional South Australia, they produce fun picture storybooks about all types of farming and agriculture, with lots of teacher resources as well. https://www.georgethefarmer.com.au We used the picture book: ‘George the Farmer- Ruby and the Dairy Dilemma.’

One of the learning opportunities when beginning our farm scene was about SPACE- foreground, middle ground and background and the size proportions. Students drew a background of farm paddocks, discussing how when things are further away they look smaller. They drew some farm buildings like a dairy, barn or windmill just below the horizon line and added a tractor and maybe a cow in the middle ground.

Students used oil pastels to colour in and food dye wash for grass and sky.

Students then made painted paper for George the Farmer’s shirt and pants, and scraps of painted paper in brown, beige, yellow for the hat, face hands, boots etc. I had several of each shape for the pieces of George in card cut from cereal boxes so the children could trace them on the back of the painted paper, choosing the shape shirt they want. I had painted paper already done for the skin, hat and hair and cut them into smaller pieces to just fit the card shapes so there was no wastage.

I cut out card shapes of the shirt, pants, face, and hat for children to trace around on the back of the painted paper. They used scraps to cut out a belt, boots, hair and hands.

Students paint a print out of a cow and cut out to glue on or the cow could have been drawn onto the middle ground or foreground (larger) instead.

AUD $2 for email download of full lesson plan

Lesson plan with learning intentions, success criteria, links to useful videos, suggested artist artworks for discussion, template for shapes to make George the Farmer.

Frog Life Cycle~ Year 1/2 Mixed media art lesson

As part of a theme of Growth and Change, Year 1 & 2 discussed changes in the weather and the seasons and nature. We talked about the traditional seasons of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter and learnt about the seven Aboriginal Seasons of the Kulin Nation (Melbourne and south central Victoria) by viewing a Calendar. We noted that September and October is called “Poorneet”- Tadpole Season. Some children had said they’d seen tadpoles and small frogs in a local park with a lake.

We watched a video about the life cycle of a frog, with pictures of the stages and changes.

Students painted a lake, pond or creek/river. They formed tadpoles for plasticine and eggs from bubble wrap.

Painted paper was made with browns and greens using texture wands to make frog skin.

Children used templates to help them draw the body parts for their frog onto the back of their painted paper to then cut out and glue together, then place on their pond scene.

AUD $2 for email download of this lesson

Lesson plan with learning intentions, success criteria, lesson activities, links to videos used, frog templates, and Victorian Curriculum links.

ANZAC SOLDIERS- Guided drawing + expressive emotion: Year 1-2 art lesson

The 25th April is ANZAC day, when we commemorate and remember the sacrifice of soldiers who fought in the First World War. This 2 minute youtube video explains ANZAC day for children to understand.

Learning Intention:

To draw an ANZAC soldier showing emotion.

Success Criteria:

I can follow a guided or instructed drawing the draw an ANZAC soldier’s slouch hat, head, shoulders and part of uniform, adding a face that expresses an emotion felt by a soldier in the War.

LESSON:

Read a story book to the children about ANZAC soldiers, suitable for young children, such as one of the following:

My Grandad Marches on ANZAC Day by Catriona Hoy & Benjamin Johnson,

ANZAC Ted by Belinda Landsberry,

ANZAC Biscuits by Phil Cummings & Owen Swan,

Simpson and his Donkey by Mark Greenwood.

There are many other beautifully written and illustrated picture story book that will help young children understand this important part of Australian history, whilst focussing on aspects of courage, friendship, honour and loyalty.

After sharing one of these ANZAC stories (youtube has many of these books read aloud) discuss with the children some of the feelings and emotions soldiers would have felt at different times. For example, lonely, missing their family or loved ones; frightened and scared that they may die or get wounded, sad, when a mate dies; etc.

Children follow a guided drawing following along step by step to draw the slouch hat, the shape of the face, neck, shoulders and shirt pockets etc. (see video below) They then think about which emotion they want to show on their soldier’s face. Children could use a mirror to “try on a face” to get the right expression or examples could be drawn on the white board.

I mixed up a khaki coloured paint to paint in the hat and uniform; the face is food dye (red, yellow & a tiny bit of blue) mixed to make a skin colour.

Another example is to use pastels. The following portraits were made to be a design for a commemorative stamp, done by Year 2’s

Guided drawing of an ANZAC soldier

Primary Colours- Alexander Calder inspired ipad art – Year 1

LEARNING INTENTIONS: To learn about the Primary Colours To learn about line and shape To learn about the artist Alexander Calder

SUCCESS CRITERIA: I can use the primary colours in a digital artwork. I can use various lines and ORGANIC shapes in an artwork. I know that Alexander Calder made artworks and mobiles that often used primary colours.

This lesson uses the Brushes App to make a digital artwork. We looked at Alexander Calder’s paintings and discussed the colours, lines and shapes used. We looked at the colour wheel to identify the primary colours.

LINES: curved, loopy, wavy, straight SHAPES: rounded and organic, circles

Students opened Brushes App to start a “new painting”. I showed them how to find or edit a ‘brush’ so they had a smooth stroke and choose black to draw various lines and some shapes inspired by Calder’s work.

They then need to add a layer (this will need to be demonstrated) Primary colours: red blue and yellow, are chosen to colour in the shapes and maybe add a shape, spiral, or line.

The outline layer is dragged on top of the colouring in layer.

Calder inspired iPad art- Brushes App