First Grade and Ellsworth Kelly

Exploring Shapes and Colors 

with 

Ellsworth Kelly

in First Grade

First grade brings a wonderful sense of exploration and play to the art room.  These young students are eager to manipulate materials and seek out answers.  They bring a great energy to the room every week.  An on going theme throughout the year, is exploring various artists by following the story of Anna's Art Adventure.  

With adventure books in hand, we start with the work of contemporary artist Ellsworth Kelly with his simple, yet grand shapes and colors.  

The instructional sequence allows the students to play and explore geometric shapes and primary colors, using few methods of learning.  The year long goal for these young students is them to develop the initial skills and vocabulary in their art-learning and art-making.
For this particular lesson, the goal was for students to demonstrate their understanding of these simple shapes through identification, description and production.

The process was, also, my way of learning more about these students individual needs, their individual skills and their level of development in regards to introductory skills, such as, tracing, cutting, 

coloring, and painting.  

(After all, they are 6 years old and this is their first formal art education class.)
These snapshots illustrate the instructional sequence.  The sequence offered my students opportunities to explore, play and create, while building analytical skills, fine motor skills and art vocabulary.

Thanks for dropping by.

For the lesson click here:)

xoxo, Smock Room