Kinder Winter Landscapes (K)

After completing our 'Kandinsky Color Circles' lesson, we moved onto a winter landscape!
This lesson is from the blog 'Paintbrush Rocket'.
Before beginning our painting, we started by looking at my Kinder'scapes PPT and compared and contrasted examples of seascapes, landscapes, and cityscapes. Then I showed them a variety of images and they helped to sort them into the correct category. Then onto the painting project! :)
My kindergarteners began by painting an apple-size yellow circle on their paper. Once they had it painted, I came around to each table and put a small drop of red into their yellow paint cup. Students predicted what color they would make when they mixed the two together... and then using popsicle sticks, students took turns mixing the colors together until it turned into yellow-orange (one of the "super-secret" colors I told them about earlier that hides between yellow and orange on the color wheel)! They then used this color to paint a ring around their yellow circle. Then I came around and added another drop of red. Once again student's mixed their paint cups until they got the color orange and then painted a ring around their circle. We did this one more time and they painted a red-orange circle.
Then I switched out the cups of paint and gave students a cup of red paint; they used this to paint a red ring around their circle. Then we added some blue paint to the red paint cup, predicted what the mixed outcome would be, then students mixed their paints to create a red-violet color (another super-secret color)! At this point we ran out of time, so we put their paintings up on the drying rack and cleaned up for the day.
The following day I gave students blue paint to finish painting any part of their artwork that was still white. Due to some behavior issues, once they were done painting this blue part, we had to put up their artwork and they were done for the day (boo).
Finally on the last day (with our behavior in check!), we began the printmaking part of our project! This marks my kindergartener's first experience of doing printmaking with me! I pulled out my plastic paint palette lids (the clear lid that you put on top of your palette - not the palette itself), poured some white tempera paint on it and spread it out evenly, then gave students cut-up sponge pieces to 'print' on a snowy foreground over-top of their paintings.
As they were working on their foregrounds, I pulled out some more lids and prepped them the same way except this time I poured black paint on them. Once students were done with their foreground, I passed out the black paint lids along with cut up pieces of corrugated cardboard and showed them how to 'print' some trees onto their landscapes! I did a quick demo of how I would approach it, then let then print them however they'd like (they could follow my example, or do it their own way). The way I did it though, began with me printing a tree trunk, then transforming the "|" into what resembled the letter "Y" by printing a shorter branch onto the trunk. From there, I just began adding more branches to both the trunk itself and onto other branches. I told them since a tree grows up and out of the ground, that they should try printing their branches slanting upward (otherwise they almost always print them all downward). Students then had the option of using their white paint sponge to add some "snow" to their tree branches.
Overall I love how these turned out - PLUS the kids LOVED getting to mix their paint colors and apply it to a more realistic painting (not just our abstract Kandinsky circles). :)

3 comments

  1. Beautiful results, but especially love the tie-in to Kandinsky and a bonus value/paint mixing lesson!

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  2. I love the idea of "super secret colors" that hide on the color wheel. What a great concept, i will definitely be using that :)

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    1. Today I called them "super secret ninja colors"... it just slipped out - but the kids LOVED it. haha

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