Finished Monochromatic VanGogh: Class A

Welp, I just discovered the collage feature on Picasa!  Loving it!

Here are some of the finished monochromatic Van Gogh paintings from my 5th graders, Class A.  This group seemed to struggle a bit more with the painting concepts than the last time I did this project, but I'm still pretty happy with the results.  I think I at least had a majority of the students actually try for this project, which is an improvement for this group!

Monochromatic Ice Cream Cones: Finished

In the last two days of 5th grade art class, we've gotten geared up to do our Van Gogh paintings.  First, we had to finish putting together our monochromatic ice cream cones and talk about color in art.

After all the cones were put together, I put one of each color up on the board and we talked about each cone as a big group.  What happens to yellow and orange when you add black?  What kinds of hues of red do you get? Etc..etc...

Today, we read the short article in the September issue of Scholastic Arts about Picasso's Old Guitarist.  This is where we were able to get into talking about color and mood.  I asked each student to write the color they will use on the back of their canvas and fill out the ice cream rubric and color theory/Van Gogh review questions.  Next class we tackle painting the background/sky and ground in our artworks!

Here is my rubric for this project.  I must say that while I was worried at the beginning of the year about this group performing at an 80% or more on their final assessment (this is one of my SLO groups), I'm feeling much better about their performance now!  Creating an entire 5th grade curriculum around color theory is so easy to build upon and reinforce the previously learned information...

Monochromatic Ice Cream Cones: Part 1

As part of my VanGogh unit, I am having my 5th graders paint tints and shades ice cream cones so they can see the range of colors you get just by adding white or black to a color.   

During yesterdays class, I let each table choose one color to use.  I should have realized this before I did it, but it was a slight mistake on my part, as I ended up with three tables who chose green, two blues, and an orange. As they started mixing their shades, the table that chose orange started commenting on how brown the orange started to get.  It was at that point that I realized I should have gone about the color choices a little bit differently, so I changed it up for today's class.

Today, I made sure each of the primary and secondary colors were handed out.  Each table received an egg flat with one hole filled with red, for example, for each table member.  There was enough white for each person, and then a hole filled with black.  I had the students draw out 10 ice cream scoops real quick and then they painted one scoop the regular color.

Then, we moved onto tints.  I had students take a small amount of their color and add it to the white, paint a scoop, and repeat until they had painted 5 tints.  Before we moved onto shades, we discussed how it's always easier to make something darker but difficult to make something lighter without wasting paint.  So, I had the students take a small amount of black on their brush, and mix it in with the remaining regular color they had left.  We repeated the process for the last four scoops of ice cream.  

I demonstrated mine on the board using the sky blue tempera paint, whereas the blue table used regular blue paint.  This way, they will be able to see the difference between the two blues. 

Next class, we will cut out and put our ice creams together on top of a drawn cone.  I'll have the students put their ice cream scoops in order from darkest to lightest.  Then, in the class that follows, we will look at the six colors side by side and have a critique of the colors.  We'll discuss what happens to colors like yellow and orange when you add black.  We will continue our Common Core connection in this unit by reading the short article in the September issue of Scholastic Arts about Picasso's blue period guitarist.  We'll talk a little about emotions in color, and then have students choose which monochromatic color scheme they want to use for their painting.  And FINALLY, we will get to painting like Van Gogh!

VanGogh Unit for 5th Grade

Now that we are done with our checkerboards, I've decided our next unit in 5th grade will be Vincent Van Gogh!  I LOVE Van Gogh!  He's probably one of my favorite artists.  I'm excited to do this unit for many reasons...I'm incorporating a project I did my first year of teaching, but I'm really expanding upon it and trying to incorporate the Common Core.

After my post-observation, I've realized that I haven't done a very good job so far getting my students to write in art class, so I'm working on trying to change that for all of the units coming up. Here's what I plan to do for our Van Gogh unit!

1.  I've already presented my power point to the students and we've discussed Van Gogh's life a little bit.  I'm using my September/October 2012 issue of Scholastic Art (first check for Common Core!) and the elementary worksheet that came with it.  I've decided that I'm not going to spend an entire class filling out the entire worksheet, but I'm going to split it up as we progress through the unit so the questions and articles we read make more sense to the students.  Most of the worksheet discusses the elements of art that Van Gogh used in Starry Night, as well as how the elements work in other arts of work, such as Picasso's Old Guitarist from his blue period.

2. After we read the article about Van Gogh, I'll have the students draw out their next painting, which will be in a monochromatic color scheme.  I think I'm going to give them two options: either do a still life similar to Van Gogh's sunflowers series, or do a landscape similar to Van Gogh's, with the swirly skies.

Here are some of the projects from my first year of teaching.  I did these with 5th grade as well with a monochromatic color scheme, but I only allowed them to do a still life of a vase with flowers.

3. After we draw out our sketch for the painting, we will continue with the worksheet and talk about color choice.  We will discuss how color can create an emotion.  Before we do the painting, I will have the students create a monochromatic ice cream painting, where we will talk about tints and shades.  This will be the workup for mixing colors and such.

4.  Finally, I'll give my demonstration of how Van Gogh tended to mix his colors directly on his canvas as he painted, not always on his paint palette.  We'll discuss how to create texture in our art (I'll have the students use acrylic paint for this painting) and then we shall paint!

5. For the last part of this unit...I'm REALLY excited.  I've never attempted anything like this before in art class, but we'll see how it goes.  The kids are really excited to be learning about Van Gogh so I'm hoping it will be successful!  I showed students the YouTube video of Don McLean's Vincent set to Van Gogh's artwork.  I have created a worksheet of the lyrics with writing space next to each stanza.  We are going to attempt to decipher McLean's lyrics in connection with Van Gogh and his life. (Second BIG check for Common Core!)

This will definitely be an interesting unit...especially since I'm doing it with "the group", but I think it will go well!