Warm/Cool Color Silhouettes

I introduced (more like revisited than introduced) warm and cool colors to my 4th graders.  We discussed what made a color warm or cool and listed things that we associated with the words "warm" and "cool" and how that helps shape these color schemes.  We also talked about what a silhouette is.  

I showed them a few examples of warm and cool colored backgrounds I had made and asked that they guess what I used and my technique for using it.  The kiddos were spot on!  They could tell that I had used oil pastels and layered the colors and also went over them with either my finger or a tissue to blend the colors.  

I also showed them a finished example with a silhouette on it.  I asked them to describe what my silhouette was and asked them how they could tell (it was an owl perched on a tree branch).  I wanted them to think about this because I wanted them to realize what details were needed in order to identify a silhouette and how our eyes can still use those clues to tell the difference between one subject (in my case the owl) and another (the tree branch) without relying on drawn lines or too much detail.  

Once they seemed to grasp the concept, I had them start their backgrounds.  I asked them to decide if they wanted a morning or night sky before they started, and this would determine if they worked with warm or cool colors.  They covered an entire sheet of construction paper with their chosen color scheme and blended the pastels (some better than others).

I gave them black construction paper and white colored pencils to draw out their silhouette.  I had to remind them that the pencil side would get glued down and that they didn't need to add any details like eyes, clothing, etc. They cut and glued their silhouette onto their background and we were finished within the hour! 

I love the variety of subject matter they came up with.  I go back and forth on requiring certain subject matter, in some lessons, I think it is important to narrow it down for the students.  But in this case, I think the freedom suited them well.  All of their work is pictured below with a few close ups for details.  Enjoy!

 

Optical Illusion Cubes

5th Grade Op Art

I love introducing my students to Optical Illusions!  They get really excited about it and so do I!  There are always some frustrating moments in the process for the kids, but they love the results and are amazed at what they are capable of in the end!  (Can you tell I get excited about this?  I just wrote three sentences in a row that ended in exclamation points and I'm pretty sure I could finish this post without the help of any other punctuation)

Not only do I love teaching Op Art, but I like to change up what lessons I go with for this unit.  This year, I found an amazing idea from another teacher and blogger http://artisandesarts.blogspot.com/ and owe her a giant 'thank you' for the lesson, because it was different than what I had done before and it was great at getting the kids' motor skills and worked with math skills and vocabulary! I may have put my own spin on the lesson, but she was the idea-man woman.

We started by looking at various Optical Illusions that I had compiled into a PowerPoint.  It really gets the kids excited and it's so much fun to hear all of the "oohs" and "ahhs" among the "I can see it!  It's moving!" or "It's blinking at me!"  If you'd like a copy of my PowerPoint, give me your email and I can send it your way.  While we look at all of the amazing Op Art, I remind the students that nothing in the images is actually moving or blinking, that it is all just a careful combination of lines, pattern and color choice.

I showed them a finished example of what our Optical Illusion would look like and the kids couldn't believe they were going to make be able to make this.  But I assured them that they would do great, it just takes patience and understanding where to put certain lines and colors.  And I reminded them that I would help walk them through it and that I just wanted them to do the best that they could and that nothing is ever perfect.

I wanted to start them off with some simple ruler (as a straight edge) practice so that none of them would be criss-crossing their arms and struggling to make straight lines as well as reiterate some math vocab and recap on what a "parallel line" is.  I demonstrated the proper use of a ruler and asked them to draw some parallel lines on a  paper I provided them.  The sheet I gave them had three lines printed in various directions and I just asked that they use their ruler to draw at least one parallel line next to each of the three. This was just so I knew they really understood parallel lines (because with this lesson, I was going to refer to them a lot) and how to use a ruler as a straight edge.

After our practice, we dove right into our own Op Art.  We broke down the finished version into simple shapes; one student proudly proclaimed "It's just a hexagon inside of a hexagon!" Of course he was correct and I was going to help them make those hexagons.  We started with a pre-made printed template I got from Artisan des Arts (blogger previously mentioned) and we got down to business! I don't normally use previously made templates like this, but I knew that the kids were going to be working hard with their rulers, parallel lines and angles, so this time, I made an exception.

We started by making our small cube inside of the large hexagon using (what else) parallel lines!  I
walked the students through the steps and tried to remind them that they would not be perfect since were were "eyeballing" our parallel lines and kept pointing out that my example was also not perfect and the illusion still worked.  This was a concern the students continually had and I think that seeing me point out my flaws, helped put them at ease when they were struggling.

I took photos of the step by step process below.  I started by taking them individually but after a few, I started to combine the steps side by side for efficiency.  If you want any more details of the instruction that went along with them, let me know, I'd be happy to provide an instruction guide with the images.

Because this is a challenging lesson for 5th graders, I had them color their small cubes in to give them a break from dividing their sections up into thirds and drawing all of the parallel lines.  We colored the "top" section in the darkest with our crayons, medium shading on the right and lightest on the left.  We discussed how to get shades out of our crayon and I let the students decide if they wanted to color using a pattern (many of them chose checkerboard style) or just color at random like in my example.  I reminded them that for the optical illusion to work, it was just all about shading and it helped for them to use the same colors throughout the entire piece of artwork

Ta-da!!

When they were finished coloring, I allowed the students to cut out their illusion and glue it to a sheet of construction paper...their color choice of course!  The results were amazing, they all had a sense of pride in their work and were amazed at what they came up with!  Through any frustrations they had with the rulers and making parallel lines, they were finally able to look past their imperfections and see the amazing piece of Op Art that they created.  Plus I was able to get my love for cross curricular lesson planning with the incorporated math (dividing lines into thirds, making parallel lines, color shading, optical illusions, what more could you ask for in a lesson?!).  

Being mindful of my shared bulletin strips and wall space in the halls, I created three different wall displays of the students' artwork. Two were displayed in the fifth grade hallway and one is located in the main hallway near the cafeteria...a chance for everyone to see what the fifth graders are up to!

Finished Early Symmetry

I'm Done!  Now What?

Every art teacher Every teacher has a handful of students at any given time tell them that they are done, there is nothing they can do to improve, and they totally understand what they did in their assignment/project/whatever.  In my classroom, I like to provide supplemental projects that students can complete if they finish early.  If it is only a few minutes early or we are going to be moving on soon, I let them check out my bookshelf or art materials just to experiment with; but if they are way ahead of everyone else in the class, I offer a follow up project. 

To follow up our Mandalas, I asked the students to make a radially symmetrical magazine collage.  I encouraged them to choose two or more pages from magazines based on color and to try to pick out pages with high contrast from one another.  They cut their pages up snowflake style (the ol' fold and cut method) and saved all of their pieces.  They then set about the task of collaging their favorite pieces together to create a colorful, radially symmetrical design.  I let them choose their background color and we glued them down (onto construction paper).