1st Grade Paintings of "My Favorite Thing to Do In My Neighborhood"

Hannah, 1-107
My favorite thing to do in my neighborhood is walking

1st Graders have been working on a painting unit the past several weeks. Students began by exploring brushstrokes (e.g., thick, thin, curvy, straight, zig zag, etc.) and color mixing (e.g., primary, secondary, adding white and black, etc.) for three weeks. 

The following explorations were made by students in 1-107:

After learning through exploration, I read the book "Jacob Lawrence In the City" by Susan Goldman Rubin with students and we discussed the art of Jacob Lawrence. I chose this artist because of his bright, graphic, lively paintings of New York City (particularly Harlem, where he lived) and to connect to the 1st grade Social Studies curriculum in February, when students were learning about famous African Americans as a part of Black History Month. This also connected to their study of community (i.e., community workers, places in the community, types of communities, etc.) that they were also learning about in their classrooms. Students looked at the painting "Brownstones" in particular, and identified the narrative of the painting (things people do in their neighborhood) as well as colors, shapes, and lines they saw.

Brownstones

1958

Collection of Clark Atlanta University Art Galleries

© Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence. Courtesy of the Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation.

After this, students considered their favorite thing to do in their neighborhood and listed "playing ball in the park", "riding my scooter on the sidewalk", "walking", and "getting ice cream from the ice cream truck" among their favorites. Students created a sketch and wrote a sentence describing this favorite activity to help them plan their paintings, then began under-paintings in wash (paint mixed with water) the following week. Next, students spent three weeks adding color to their paintings, concentrating on using a variety of brushstrokes and mixing various colors. The results are fantastic! Please enjoy first graders' "Me in My Neighborhood" paintings:

Jeremiah, 1-107
My favorite thing to do in my neighborhood is skateboarding

Makayla, 1-107
My favorite thing to do in my neighborhood is to play in my backyard

Jayden, 1-107
My favorite thing to do in my neighborhood is to get a treat from the ice cream truck!

Emily, 1-107
My favorite thing to do in my neighborhood is to go to the park and play with my friend Jestine

Brandon, 1-107
My favorite thing to do in my neighborhood is to go for a walk on the sidewalk

Sherlynn, 1-107
My favorite thing to do in my neighborhood is to play ball in the park

Kindergarten Collage Unit

Kindergarteners have been working on a collage unit. They began by exploring ways of manipulating paper with our hands (tear, rip, fold, etc.). They also learned proper gluing techniques (we use glue brushes and glue containers instead of glue sticks or bottles, so students learn to "dot, dot, dot, don't glue a lot around the edge").

The next lesson, students explored ways of creating different edges (i.e., zig zag, fringed, curvy, straight, etc.) by "drawing" these lines with our scissors.

Students worked on the same piece of paper both weeks to create a collage exploration of anything they chose (my focus for these lessons was to explore ways of manipulating materials and techniques instead of focusing on a specific subject/end product).

Michelle, K-B02

Gianna, K-B02

Benjamin, K-B02

Students then had a 1-class painting "break" from collage. Students discussed primary/secondary colors and learned how to mix the primary colors to create secondary colors on large pieces of paper. I then introduced the idea of hand-painted paper and we discussed how it was important to fill in the entire piece of paper with mixed colors so that we could later use this paper for collage.

   

After this, students looked at the book "Animals, Animals" by Eric Carl and discussed their favorite animals. They spent one week creating the animal using hand painted paper, and another week creating the "habitat' for their animal on a separate piece of paper. The third week they cut out the animal and glued it onto the "habitat" background and used more collage paper to finish their "Favorite Animal Collages".

Alexa, K-B07, "My Favorite Animal is a Horse"

Ariana, K-B02, "My Favorite Animal is a Whale"

Devin, K-B02, "My Favorite Animal is a Camel"

Jasmine, K-B07, "My Favorite Animal is a Cat"

Liani, K-B02, "My Favorite Animal is a Cat"

Michael, K-B07, "My Favorite Animal is a Camel in the Desert with Pyramids"

1st Grade Paint Explorations

Students in first grade have been busy at work exploring the wonderful medium of paint!
We began this 3-class project by spending time looking at the painting, "The Mellow Pad" by Stuart Davis.

Image from Brooklynmuseum.org

We identified and created a list of a variety of lines we saw in the painting (ie, curvy, zig zag, spiral, dotted, etc.). Students then learned how to use black paint and brush to create these lines on a large piece of white paper. At the end of class, they received white paint and learned how to properly mix two different colors together.

The following lesson, we read the book "Mouse Paint" by Ellen Stoll Walsh and discussed how the primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) can be mixed and combined with brushstrokes to create the secondary colors (orange, green, and purple).

Students then learned how to use proper painting techniques (using brushstrokes instead of "scrubbing" the paint onto the paper, cleaning our brush in between colors, drying our brush on the sponge after cleaning their brush, etc.) to fill in some of the shapes they made the previous week. They focused on making new colors by mixing two or more colors together.

Class 1-108

Sabrina, 1-108

Finally, students spent the final week learning that there are many colors that can be made, other than just the primary colors. We learned to use turquoise, magenta and white to create all sorts of colors by using brushstrokes to mix the colors on the paper inside shapes that were still empty. Students also learned to paint on top of dry colors; although the colors did not mix together, colors do appear different when painted on top of other colors.

1-125

Meroly, 1-125

In the following weeks, we will be using our newly-acquired color-mixing skills to create painted portraits of ourselves with our family.

Ariana, 1-108

Carol, 1-108