5th grade Elements of Art
As the youngest students the middle school where I teach, I assume my 5th grade students are starting from square one. We spend 5th grade being re-introduced to the elements of art and looking at different artists who use them. We started off September by examining the artwork of Spanish artist Joan Miro and saw how he playfully uses line in his abstract works. The students then created their own abstract works using ONLY different types of line. (This lesson is a must for me because I can lay out my expectations for painting very early on, plus, it helps reinforce common vocabulary that we'll begin using in the art room: like parallel lines, perpendicular lines, spiral, etc.) Kids love the freedom in this easy lesson and I enjoy the variety of the finished works.
After studying line, my 5th graders move into another easy element: color. Students begin looking at what color is by using prisms to break apart the spectrum into a rainbow of colors! (They love, love, LOVE doing this because for many of them it's the first time seeing this.) Then, we look at Picasso's work from his Blue and Rose periods when he used color to convey different feelings. After TONS of color-mixing, they create their own creative color wheels. I had many favorites but I am loving the color wheel ghosts and ballet slippers, don't you?
