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.

10 Min – Cool, warm & neutral colors

15 Min – Cartoon drawings

15 Min – Mix & paint color wheels

15 Min – Mix neutral colors

12 Min – Leftover paints used for Artists’ Choice

3 Min – Everyone helps

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.

Always try to greet students as they come in and kneel down when you can, so that you are on their level.

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.

Make 3 circles on your paper.

• A big circle
• A medium circle
• A small circle

Choose 3 warm colors, like red and orange. When the music plays, color dance inside any one circle. Tell students to move slowly inside the circle, like your pastel is dancing to the music. Dancers change how they move often, depending on how the music sounds.

Play upbeat music for the warm colors – for about 2 minutes.

Choose 3 COLD colors like blue or purple pastels and color dance inside another circle

Play jazz music for the cool colors – for about 2 minutes.

Sometimes a color is not cool or warm. gray or tan are these kinds of colors. We call them neutral, which means they’re in-between hot and cold. Neutral colors are not as bright as warm and cool colors.

Choose 3 Lukewarm, or neutral colors like brown, tan, or grey pastels and color dance in the last of the circles.

Play moody music like from a game or movie soundtrack for the neutral colors – for about 2 minutes.

Use the 4 pictures on the printout to draw a cow step-by-step. Read each step and allow the students to finish before moving ahead.

Use a pencil and make the cow nice and big on the paper. Finish by drawing over the pencil with a black marker and adding details.

Don’t shade or fill areas

Do not add any shading or color! Students will paint these later.

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

Paint pigment list:

• Napthol or Pyrrol Red
• Hansa or Light Yellow
• Pthalo Green (blue shade)
• Cyan or Cerulean Blue
• Ultramarine Blue
• Dioxazine Purple
• Magenta
• Burnt Umber
• Raw Sienna
• Titanium White (professional grade only)

Mix & fill Red

Have your kids follow along with you. For the first color, we use red right out of the bottle. Make sure this is a bright warm red, not a magenta red.

Clean brushes after painting the red area.

Mix & fill Orange

Use yellow, and then add just a small bit of red to it. If your color is still yellow-orange, then add a bit more red.

We cleaned the red out of the brush because it would over power the yellow, which is a lot weaker pigment.

Clean brushes.

Yellow might look good right from the bottle, but most yellows have a touch of orange in them, and you can get a teensy bit of your orange to add into it.

Clean brushes.

Green will need a bit of yellow too. Add white if it looks too dark.

Clean brushes.

Blue comes in two very different colors. Deep blue called, Ultramarine, and the lighter blue that many call sky blue or electric blue. Mix both of them together if you have them, to get a basic all-around blue. White should be added if it looks too dark, which is often the case.

Clean brushes.

Purple is a dark color, so add a touch of white to it. When finished, write name and set aside to dry.

Clean brushes

Mix purple and yellow to create brown. Add a bit of red if it looks too greenish, and add a touch of white to it for a lighter brown, a good cow color.

Encourage kids to make a brown cow with black or white spots. Make a nice pink for the nose.

Cows can be white with brown spots, or brown with white spots. Leave the paper alone for white spots.

You can also make the spots black.

Make pink for the nose

Add white and a magenta red to make a light pink for the nose (regular red works ok).

Students may want to add some background like grass and sky.

Don’t use black until the very end, or it will mix into other colors and make them look dirty.

Write name in pencil when finished.

Set artwork aside to dry.

Provide new paper and let your artists paint whatever they want. One suggestion would be a cow with crazy colors, like lime green and orange!

• 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

Week 26: Artists’ Choice Big Time!

Students will get to choose what to do and what medium they like, but not in a free play time. Instead, artists are gently directed to creating art from still life objects so that there is a limited choice, and they work from observation. Then they’ll have even more choice, but again, using a limited range of photos and ideas. The result is a lot of freedom to express, but not a lot of wasted paper from playing around.

Week 27: The Most Important Spot II

Artists get to use the insight of the Most Important Spot (our phrase for Emphasis) on a landscape painting. First they’ll cut out elements and arrange them for their picture. Then they will trace and transfer the guidelines to the painting. Painting it all in is a lot of fun, and the design was all their own.