1st Grade Toko/ Klee Cat Comparison lesson (watercolor and oil pastel)

I have no idea what the students know... and now I know that they're not quite used to watercolor! They painted so thick and heavy that they didn't really capitalize on the watery quality of watercolor paints. I've seen other teachers write about using liquid watercolor.... I'm going to try that next!

Kindergarten Klee Cats!

My Kinder's discussed Paul Klee's "Cat and Bird" painting. We looked at the shapes and colors and discussed how we could draw a cat. Most of them said that they couldn't... but when we broke down the shapes and did it step by step, cats appeared on their papers! Amazing! Then they colored them with markers and colored pencils. We discussed how we draw BIG to fill the paper, how we don't scribble to cover space that's empty, and - most importantly - how we THROW AWAY DRIED OUT MARKERS instead of putting them back into the marker bins! Mrs. Lemke only likes juicy markers!  ;-) 

Here's Paul Klee's "Cat and Bird" that was their inspiration:

Here are their artworks:

  

Here are the Kinders working on them!

 

 

1st Grade Cat Lesson: Cats!

The art history examples for this lesson were Paul Klee's "Cat and Bird" and Toko's "Cat and Spider". We compared and contrasted everything from the anatomy of a cat in each (the body parts and the shapes the artist used to represent that body part) to what they thought of their prey. The Young Artists had the choice of  drawing a more realistic cat (like Toko's) or a CRAZY CAT like Klee's! I can't wait to post these artworks! Like I've mentioned before... this is my first foray into elementary art. I'm not only trying to figure out what the students at this school have already learned, but I'm trying to figure out what each grade is "capable" of. It's been a looooong time since my elementary education practicum experience! The first graders really loved the oil pastel/ watercolor take on this... but I changed it to marker and colored pencil for the rest of the 1st graders. I need to spend a few more weeks on classroom flow before I introduce wet media. Right now we're all getting used to the schedule and each other. But more painting coming soon - I promise!