Painting
Painting is about translating ideas into shape, line, and color. Through experimentation and practice, students learn to mix all the colors they need to use for their painting ideas. Given a palette of red, yellow, blue, black, and white paint, students learn that there is an infinite variety of colors available to them. Colors can be light or dark, and more or less intense. Lines can be thick, thin, wiggly, straight, curved or sharp. Shapes can be big, small, round, angular, overlapping, touching, or far apart. As they mature and become more competent using paint, students also learn how to incorporate texture into their paintings, by varying their brush strokes and the thickness of the paint. The challenge for students is to figure out their own ways to combine all of these possibilities in their paintings.
Kindergarten
Composition and color mixing:
- What happens when you mix colors?
- Will your shapes be close together, far apart, or touching each other?
Self Portraits:
- What are all the parts you need to paint?
- What shape will you paint for each part?
- What colors will you need to mix?
First Grade
Narrative:
- What did you do outside when it snowed?
- What special clothes did you wear?
- How many people will be in your painting?
- Will you show the snow coming down, or will it be after the storm?
Size Relationships:
- What do you like to play with?
- How big is your toy?
- Is it something you play with inside or outside?
- What colors will you need to mix?
- What kind of animal will you paint?
- What shape will you paint for each part?
- What colors will you need to mix?
- What parts do you notice on your bug?
- What shape will you paint for each part?
- What colors do you notice on your bug?
- What colors will you have to mix for your painting?
Second Grade
Color Mixing:
- How can we tell that it's Fall outside?
- What do you like to do outside in the Fall?
- What colors will you need to mix for your painting?
Size Relationships:
- How do animals take care of their babies?
- Will the animals be close together or far apart?
- How big will each animal be?
- What kind of habitat will you paint for your animals?
Narrative:
- What did you do outside when it snowed?
- What special clothes did you wear?
- How many people will be in your painting?
- Will you show the snow coming down, or will it be after the storm?
- How will you make the snow show up on white paper?
- What colors and shapes do you notice?
- What shapes will you need to paint?
- What colors will you need to mix?
- How do you make skin color?
- How do you make hair color?
- How do you make eye color?
- It depends whose portrait you’re painting.
- Tell us one nice thing about your partner.
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Observation Paintings of Tonka Trucks:
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- Where do wild animals live?
- What colors do you need to mix for your animal?
- How big will the animal be in your painting?
- Will you paint the animal or the habitat first?
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Color Mixing:
- How do colors look different if we use black paper?
- What will you paint to show that it's Fall?
- Who or what will be in your painting?
- What will you paint in the background?
- What are some different kinds of storms?
- What does it feel like outside, during a storm?
- What does it look like outside, during a storm?
- How can you use your paintbrushes to show wind, rain, snow, hail, etc.?
- Will you just show the sky, or will you include land, people, animals, etc.?
- What does your painting sound like?
Listen to AudioBoom Student Reflections 4B
Gesture/Body Movement:
- What kinds of jobs or responsibilities do you have at home?
- How do you stand, sit, bend, or move to do your job?
- What is the setting/where will you be?
Listen to AudioBoom Student Reflections 4W
Listen to AudioBoom Student Reflections 4L
Action/Gesture/Body Movement:
- What do you like to do on the playground?
- Who will be in your painting?
- What will the people be doing?
- Which part of the playground will you paint?
Listen to AudioBoom Student Reflections 4P
Observation Paintings of Tulips:
- What colors do you notice?
- What shapes do you notice?
- What colors will you need to mix?
- What shapes will you need to paint?
Fifth Grade
Observation of toy dinosaurs and other lizards:
- What shapes will you paint for each part?
- How will you mix the colors for each part?
- What kind of background will you invent for your creature?
Observation of large objects:
- Where will you paint big and small shapes?
- Where will you paint connecting shapes?
- Where will you paint overlapping shapes?
- Will your paper be horizontal or vertical?
- What colors will you need to mix?
- Which parts of the model can yo see from your point of view?
- Where will you need to paint bending shapes?
- How can you show overlapping shapes?
- What colors will you need to mix?
- Will you paint the space around and behind the model?
Gesture/Body Movement, Composition:
- Who are the people?
- What will they be doing?
- Where will they be?
- How will you show people moving and bending?
- Will the figures be close together or far apart?
- How big will the figures be on your paper?
- What did you do on the snow day?
- Who will be in your painting?
- What will they be doing?
- Will your painting be during or after the storm?
- How can you paint snow on white paper?
- What does your painting sound like?
Observation Paintings of Flowers:
- What colors do you notice?
- What shapes do you notice?
- What colors will you need to mix?
- What shapes will you need to paint?
- Will you paint the whole bunch of flowers, or zoom in on one or two?
