Geo Shape Art

with Grandfather Tang

Art focus: Geometric shapes, colors,
Form, Repetition
Fine motor skills: gluing, drawing
Time Duration: 2, 35 min class periods
Vocabulary Focus:
Primary colors

Geometric Shapesrectangle, square,

circles, triangles

Objective:
Students will recognize and use pre-cut shapes to create an animal or object that tell a story.
Materials: Paper 12" x 18"

Scissors (if needed)

Glue

Crayons or markers

Grandfather Tangs
Story, by Ann
Tompert (book)

Multiple colors of
construction paper
Pre-cut shapes from
Ellison Machine
(circles, triangles,
squares, rectangles)

Prep:
Just pre-cut the shapes out of multiple colors or construction paper either from an Ellison
Machine or by hand.

Step One: Introduce geometric shape through the story of Grandfather Tang, learning about
tangrams. Students will learn how to form the shapes into an animal or object that they can tell a
story about.
Step two: Students will design the shapes into an image on the 12 x 18 paper and then glue
the shapes down. The students can add details with markers and/or crayons such as eyes,
background space.
Step Three: Review the shapes and purpose of their artwork. Write down the students story
about their work of art and display students artwork.

Textured Fish
Art focus: Texture, colors, Form, Repetition
Fine motor skills: gluing, cutting, pasting,
drawing
Time Duration: 3 35 min class periods

Vocabulary Focus: Texture and Movement

Objective: The students objective for this three-day lesson was to explore textures through
painting, drawing, and mixed media during the process of creating a fish in its environment.

Materials: White Paper 12" x

18"

Scissors (if needed)

Texture Plates

Crayons or markers

Textured Scrapers

Tissue Paper

Tempera Paint of all

colors

White Paper 9 x 12
Glue Sticks
Day 1 Exploring and discovering texture with paint.

Begin the texture lesson on the carpet so all the students could see the artwork by Van Gogh
and be a part of our group discussion.
Help the students understand the objective of how lines create movement by having the
students observed and discovered texture lines within Vincent Van Goghs painting, Starry
Night, 1889. This can be a fun discussion because the students acted out how the wind would
blow by making large arm movements. This arm movement was necessary when using the
Mega Paint Scrapers (by Roylco) because the students used large arm movements when
scraping the paint over the paper.
After our group discussion, have small groups of 2 prepare to paint by putting their
smocks on backwards and pulling their sleeves up past their elbows, because they have a
tendency to drag the sleeves in the paint. Students will stand around their assigned tables
where there will be a 12 x 18 white drawing paper in front of them. Then they chose their paint
scraper. Once I poured two different shades of blue tempera paint on their paper, the
students pulled the paint down, up, and sideways covering all the space of their paper. This
technique allowed the students to have fun as they demonstrated their gross motor skills. Once
the students got into discovering how the textured appeared using the paint scrapers, they
experiment by pulling the texture stick in a curvy motion, thus creating movement for the water.
Once the students finished painting, put the paper onto the drying rack.

Day 2 Creating the textured fish.

(Materials needed: crayons, 9 x 12 drawing paper, pencils, erasers, glue, and scissors)
Before to the students entering the classroom, I placed colorful pictures of fish at each table, so
when the students sat down they were able to observe the details of the fish. Discuss the
proportions of a fish as well as details such as eyes, fins, and scales prior to drawing their fish
on the drawing paper. After your discussion, have the students draw their fish on the drawing
paper utilizing the whole space of the paper (think simple shapes). Or Plan B have a Fish
already drawn and cut out for the children.
Once they were ready to add color with the crayons, practice short strokes by moving your
hands in the air and pretending to draw short lines. This process will help the students use their
fine motor skills in demonstrating texture using broken lines. Allowed them to stand and work as
well as take a moment to observe other students during the process of coloring. To
accommodate students who are not visual learners, we talked about AB patterns that could be
used within their fishs body. After the fish is completely colored, have the students cut out the
fish and glue it to the textured water created on day 1.
Day 3 Discovering the environment through role playing
The first question you could ask the students could be, Where is the fish? As the students
reflect on their fish glued on the textured water and replied, It is on the paper. Knowing that
was not the answer we are looking for, I needed the students to think like a fish and role play
where would a fish be. Think Finding Nemo Once the students had fun being a fish they were
able to use prior knowledge from books such as Rainbow Fish, shows on T.V., and real life
experiences of being at the beach, they will have a better understanding of the question. The
students should understood their fish could be near the bottom of the ocean or swimming with
other fish in the middle of the large body of water. The students used tissue paper to tear and
cut specific objects around their fish. Students cut out and glued down star fish, seaweed, a
small school of fish, and sand and coral. The colors of the tissue paper added to the colors
within their fish completing the composition of the fish in its environment.
Reflecting
What was your favorite part of the picture and Why? If you could do this assignment again what
would you do differently?
Resources
Colorful pictures of fish,
Vincent Van Goghs Starry Night, 1889.

Observational
Sketches
Art focus: shapes, colors, lines
Fine motor skills: drawing
Time Duration: 1, 35 min class periods
Vocabulary Focus:
Lines

Shapes- rectangle,
square, circles,
triangles

Objective: Students will recognize artistic details through 4 different works of art. Students will
document through sketching and written documentation visual art content.
Materials:

12 x 18 white drawing paper

pencil

crayons/markers

4 types of artworks to observe

Step 1: Have the students fold the paper 2 times so that their paper has 4 sections.
Number each section 1, 2, 3, 4..
Using a pencil have the students write their name at the top of their paper.
Step 2: Pencils should be set down, hold up one of the 4 works of art that the students will
observe. Have them study the work for 3 minutes and then put the artwork aside.
Step 3: Then have them write the name of the title of the work at the top of their square and the
name of the artist.
Have them sketch what they saw within a 3 min. time period.
Repeat Steps 1-3:
Repeat the same procedures for the 2nd drawing in the number 2 box.
In the third box, they can use crayons not just a pencil. But the procedures are the
same.
In the 4th box instead of sketching what they observed have them write a narrative
about what they observed.
**As they sketch mention that they are focusing on lines, shapes and colors. Any other artistic
details that they have observed are encouraged.

Handprint Horse
Art focus: shapes, colors, lines, form, space
Fine motor skills: drawing
Time Duration: 2, 35 min class periods
Vocabulary Focus:
Lines
Space: Foreground
Middle ground
Background

Shapes- rectangle,
square, circles,
triangles

Objective: Students will demonstrate small motor skills by tracing their hand and creatively
transforming it into a horse in a field.
Materials:

9 x 12 white drawing paper

pencil

crayons

Horse books and pictures (realistic/cartoon) to observe

Step 1: Have the students study the horse pictures. Discuss the details of the horse the mane,
long tail, hooves, placement of the eyes, colors and patterns.
Step 2: On the drawing paper help the students trace their hand with the pencil.
Step 3: Add details to the horse and to the space around the horse: background, middle ground
and foreground.
Step 4: Trace pencil lines and then color.

Green with Envy

Art Focus: colors, overlapping, unity
Fine Motor Skills: cutting, tearing, large and small motions
in painting technique.
Time Duration: 3, 35 minute classes
Vocabulary: colors (blue, green, yellow)
size (small, medium and large)
Objective:
The student objectives were to explore and discover the many colors of green by painting
overlapping leaves, as well as creating and adding contrast by gluing a colorful tissue paper
butterfly within the space.
Resources
Exotic Landscape 1910, Henri Rousseau
Femme se promenant dans une foret exotique, 1905, Henri Rousseau
CD Rom: Color by Wilton Art Programs, Reading & OReilly, Inc, 1999.
Web site: WebMuseum: http: www. ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/rousseau
Materials:

12 x 18 white paper large brushes

green, blue, white, and yellow paint

Paper towels

glue sticks

tissue paper

scissors
Procedures:
Step 1 - Learning, Discussing, and Looking:
On the first day, the students will learn, recognize, and study artworks from Rousseau. Discuss
the many shades (dark values of green), tints (light values of green) and tertiary colors (blue
green, yellow green) they see within the works of art.
Prep: Before the students walk in, prep the tables by lying out their 12x 18 sheet of painting
paper, paper towels, paintbrush, and green tempera paint poured into a small container. Set aside
the other small containers of blue, white and yellow tempera paint to be passed out one at a time.
Step 2
Reflecting on your discussion, have the students paint green small, medium and large leaves over
the entire paper with a large brush.

With a medium brush, adding the yellow (around the top and middle for light) then with a small
brush add the blue (for shadows, veins, and details). Students were allowed to dip back into the
green paint in order to control the desired green they wanted.
The goal is to have the entire paper full of different colors and sizes of leaves that represented
different colors of green just like the famous artist, Rousseau. Once the students completed their
paintings, we set them aside to dry.
Day 3
Using an 8 x 11 construction paper (white or colored paper), have the students folded their
paper in half. They draw half the butterflys antennas and wings (use letter recognition such as
the letter M for the body) from the creased edge of the paper. (Symmetry). The students use
scissors to cut out the folded paper along the pencil lines of the drawn butterfly. Once finished
they opened their folded paper, and use crayons or tissue paper to glue bright colors in a pattern
on the wings.
Bright colored tissue paper (red, yellow, blue) could be torn by hand and glued flat with a glue
stick on the paper butterfly. Some students crumbled small pieces of tissue paper into balls and
glued them on top of the flat tissue paper to create a 3-D butterfly.
Glue the butterfly on the large leaf painting.