Teaching Art: A Primary Start to the Year

If you have been in my art program for kindergarten through second grade and do not know what primary colors are, I may cry. Big. Ugly. Tears. Each fall I begin at the beginning for K-2: teaching line and primary colors. 

Kindergarten: Primary Lines and Shapes

Objectives: Primary colors, drawing varied types of lines, drawing and identifying: triangles, circles, arches, and rectangles

Materials: Pencils, 9×12 paper, tempera paints and brushes

Procedure: On the first day of art, students practice drawing straight lines, wavy lines, zigzag lines, triangles, squares, circles, and arches on newsprint. The next week, students place a straight, then a wavy, then a zigzag line on 9×12 construction paper, dividing the paper into roughly four quarters. (It helps spacing if they start with a paper that has been folded in half and place the straight line in the middle.) We review each shape, one at a time, and students place several of the same shape in the “quarter” of their choice. When all four quarters are filled with shapes, students paint the shapes first, each type of shape being the same color, then color the backgrounds. When finished, the project could look something like this:

Or this…

But because of kindergarten motor skills, they may look like this:

or this…

And that’s ok, because they are all beautiful abstracts, some of the world’s greatest artists color “outside the lines,” and students feel successful. I love the cheery colors when these are displayed. 

For fast finishers, I get out my box of shapes and students use the same project supplies to shape stamp in primary colors.

First Grade: Primarily Foiled

Objectives: Organic lines, creating closed spaces with lines, primary colors, balancing colors, patterning (optional)

Materials: Rectangular cardboard pieces, cut yarn, scissors, white glue, glue sticks, foil, broad-tipped permanent markers

Procedure: Before turning students loose on this project, you must define and model how to create closed spaces with the yarn. Students glue pieces of yarn to the cardboard with white glue. Once complete, they use glue sticks on the cardboard, so the foil adheres. It works better if two people place the foil. Students rub the foil onto the glued cardboard–not too hard or it will tear. Students fold excess foil onto the back, and they are ready to color. I encourage students to leave the “yarn hills” silver, like the second example, but projects are great either way!

Fast finishers may go back and impress patterns into the foil with a dull pencil, as this student did:

Second Grade: Primarily Mondrian

Objectives: Straight lines, creating closed spaces, primary colors, balance, weight, repetition, the art of Piet Mondrian

Materials: Blue painters tape, 11×14 paper, tempera paints and brushes 

Procedure: Exhibit Piet Mondrian’s art and have the students identify its characteristics. Before students add painters’ tape, demonstrate: creating closed spaces, placing tape straight, overlapping onto other pieces of tape, folding tape over the sides, and pressing down to eliminate gaps that paint could creep under. One note, I tell students “No United Kingdom flags,” because the design is overused and tends to produce “bullseye syndrome.” Before students paint, show art examples and discuss “weight” of colors, repetition, and balance. When the projects are dry, students should pull slowly at the base of the tape.

I have displayed these three projects together for our “Parent Only Night” in the fall. The primary colors are eye-catching and bring unity between the different projects.