Lesson At A Glance

Here’s a brief overview of the complete lesson. It’s also on your prep page in the Ready, Set, Go! section (below the lesson).

Colored buttons jump to each section in the full lesson plan below.

5  Minutes – Short Artists’ Choice

10 Min –  Snow & whites

5 Min – Draw lines from slideshow

10 Min – Mix two colors for painting top half

10 Min – Mix two colors for painting bottom half

5 Min – Draw bird on card stock

15 Min – Mix & paint trunks & branches

If Time – Add dots of white

12 Min – Color bird & cut out

5 Min – Glue bird and sign

5 Min – Everyone helps

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SCROLL & TEACH

LESSONPLAN

Each section is a different color. Read over once and then you can SCROLL & TEACH using any device you like. It’s designed to work well with your phone.

All materials are suggestions and may be modified as you see fit. We have tried many items, and these seem to allow the most versatility for the cost.

Greet students as they come in and help them choose a chair.

Kneel down so that you are on their level. Bending over emphasizes the differences in your height, while kneeling makes them feel more important. Have tape and marker ready so you can stick some tape on the table by each student and write their name on it as they sit down.

Encourage students to work with one piece of paper for a while. If someone uses the phrase, “free draw”, explain that artists’ choice is something only artists can do, while free-draw is something anyone can do. You want to use the phrase to elevate the students’ expectations of their work.

Everyone should take their time with the work and make a finished piece of art. Limiting the paper can also help kids focus on the work. If someone finishes in super-fast time, ask them what more they can do to the existing paper. Ask again several times – unless they appear overly frustrated; then you can allow them to move on to a new work.

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Snow Colors (tap any image to open viewer)

Show the snow slides, read captions and explain that there are many different white colors.

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Brushes should be nylon for springiness and durability. Round brushes are the most versatile.

Paint pigment list:

• Dark Blue
• Dark Brown
• White
• Yellow

Snow Shadows (tap any image to open viewer)

Draw lines on watercolor paper turned to bathtub position:

1. horizontal across middle (can be wavy-ish)
2. horizontal and halfway up from first line to the top (top of hills or tree line in distance)
3. 4 straight lines below the first line, evenly spaced to create 5 stripes.

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Students mix the first color, blueish grey-white

Have students get a lot of white, and add a tiny bit of dark brown, and then a little bit of dark blue. Add more blue if it looks brownish. It should lean towards blue, because it is for the sky. Make a good amount, because we’ll change it to make the next color.

Make sure the colors are not just white and that students are making grayish colors. This is a shadowy picture.

Paint the sky, which is the top section.

Have everyone paint the top “stripe” – above the highest line they drew and up to the top of the paper.

Then, change the color by adding a tiny bit of yellow.

You can also add a tiny bit more brown, to make a slightly darker, distant tree line color.

Paint the next section, or second “stripe”.

This goes right underneath the sky you just painted, and is above the middle line that was first drawn.

After, make sure brushes are washed out and dried off.

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Mix up a new lighter cool white.

Use a lot of white, and then add a tiny bit of blue, and a tiny bit of the white you used for the distant tree line in the last step. Remind them to make sure the colors are not just white and that students are making grayish colors.

• First stripe, below the distant trees, is light blue-gray. The Third and 5th stripes are also light blue-gray
• Paint 2 or 3 inches of the 2nd stripe and 4-5” of the 4th stripe on the left side of the page, to create a solid area over to the left. This is the snowy ground.
• The empty places are going to be shadows of trees. Paint them the Blue shadow color.

Paint three of next areas, skipping two of them.

On the bottom half of the paper there are 5 horizontal areas, or stripes.

Have students paint the top of these stripes with the new snow color, then skip the second stripe, leaving it blank, and paint the third stripe down. Skip the fourth stripe, and then paint the bottom stripe.

Paint some of the blank stripes – only on the left.

The second bottom stripe (blank right now), should be painted just a little bit. About one fourth of the way from the left. Then students should paint the fourth blank stripe on the left side, from the left edge all the way to the middle of the paper. This makes an area of snow off to the left of the picture.

Do not rinse brushes.

Mix a snow shadow color that is blue-white.

Add dark blue to the snow color you’ve just been using. You should get a light blueish-gray color, but quite a bit darker than the snow.

Paint the last of the stripe areas with the blueish shadows.

Make sure students don’t paint anything but the blank paper areas that are left. They should look like this:

Afterwards, clean out and dry paint brushes.

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Draw bird in pencil – no shading.

If you have time, you can let students use more cards to create more animals later on. Make sure you watch the clock though, so you can get finished.

Write name on back and save for later.

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Mix a brownish gray color for the trees.

Mix the following to get a tree color that is darker than any other color so far, but not too dark:

• Dark brown
• Dark blue (half the amount of the brown)
• A little white – not too much but enough to make these not look dark.

Show the picture for how these work with the blue shadows

Zoom in on this picture to the place where the tree trunks go to the bottom edge of the blue snow shadow stripes. It should look like the trees overlap the blue shadows. The tree trunks can be rounded on the bottom.

Paint the trees.

Use dark warm gray to paint 2 thick tree trunks. These should be the same width as the shadows, or a bit wider even.  NOTE: make sure that the bottom edge of the trunks, are at THE BOTTOM of the shadows and overlap them at least a bit.

Then add a branch, much thinner, starting above the middle snow line and going out and up off the top or side of the page. Do 2 branches on each tree, and then use a very small brush to make a few twigs way up at the top. They are miniature branches and do the same thing.

Next mix some white and a bit of yellow into the tree trunk color. Paint the left edge of the trunk (and branches maybe) – this is on the opposite side as the shadows. Just a small edge of the light grey will do but it can be as much as half the tree.

After, clean out brushes and dry them.

Move around the room, helping your students and encouraging them.

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Use a small brush and white paint to make dots of snow.

Don’t go crazy with the dots. We don’t want a blizzard! But they should be having fun.

Use just the tip of the brush, and don’t press down. You’ll have to dip the brush to get more white paint often; after 1 or 2 dots.

Clean brush and put paintings aside.

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Use oil pastels to color the bird.

Use oil pastels to color your bird drawing from earlier. Use a strong bright color you like and then add a similar color to mix in, like orange with red. Finally smooth and blend with a blender and/or a white pastel. Cut the bird out

Cut the bird out so that there is no background around it.

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Glue the bird onto a branch or tree.

Glue the bird to the painting on one of the branches, wherever you think looks best for your picture’s design.

After, have artists’ sign their painting!

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Students set up their work area.

• Wash hands
• Super-wash brushes if used
• Put art supplies away
• Wipe tables & toss trash
• Remove any smocks (last)
• Check for items on floors and tables

Try to get photos of your student’s artwork. Find a good spot for quick lighting without highlights or shadows from your hands and device. Ideally in-between two strong lights on each side.

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Most of our teachers save time by pre-mixing the 4 whites/shadow colors and browns for the trees. An assistant can mix them right before you need them or you can cover them with plastic wrap after mixing them ahead of class time.

Cut up some 8.5″ x 11″ card stock into 6 pieces 4.25″ x 3.66″ each

COLORS to MIX:

• STEP 4. White colors:
  1. Sky/Top – Mostly White + Dark Blue (Ultramarine) + tiny bit of Dark Brown (Burnt Umber)
  2. Treeline/2nd – Add to above: tiny bit of yellow + tiny bit of Dark Brown
• STEP 5. Snow colors:
  1. Bright snow – Mostly White + tiny bit of Dark Blue (Ultramarine) + teensy bit of Dark Brown
  2. Snow shadows – White + Dark Blue
• STEP 7. Tree colors:
  1. Main tree color – Dark Brown + less Dark Blue + bit of White(should be grayish brown)
  2. Light side color – Add white to above + bit of Yellow

Week 19: Shadows have Color

Students become art mad scientists, and do 3 painting experiments to learn that shadows are made with opposite colors instead of grays. This also teaches them how artists must try different things, and that artwork can be easily changed. A game of hangman is played to give them a big hint, and there are fun exercises as well as several periods where they get to do their own ideas, called Artists’ Choice.

Week 20: Balance act

Students have an object lesson about real balance, and work on creating visual balance in their work.

Use this button to view our parent’s blog. Share the link: http://parentart.org, with your student’s parents so your they can read about the lesson each week.