August 2024: Grades K-1

Focus of projects for August: Back to school, neighborhoods, learning shapes, color order, layering of shapes, straight line drawing practice and drawing to fill the paper. Projects are grouped by Elements of Art theme.

LINE UNITS

School

• Materials: Crayons
• Book: If I Built a School *affiliate link
• Video: Link
• Learning Objective: Building drawing practice, the classic old-fashioned school building
• Element of Art: Lines and Shapes (straight lines needed to make geometric shapes)

Klee City

• Materials: Crayons
• Book: Good Morning, City *affiliate link
• Learning Objective: Learn about the artist Paul Klee and practice drawing straight line
• Element of Art: Lines (building is made from lines, and bright colors)

Miro

• Materials: Crayons
• Book: Miró’s Magic Animals  *affiliate link
• Learning Objective: Learn about the artists Joan Miro, and draw simple stick figures
• Element of Art: Line and Shape (open vs. closed shapes made with lines)

SHAPE UNITS

Easy Birds

• Materials: Crayons
• Book: Hello, World! Birds *affiliate link
• Learning Objective: Make a bird from a circle and learn how to alter its pose.
• Element of Art: Shape (all the different bird poses start with the same shape)

Apples

• Materials: Crayons
• Book: Hello, World! How Do Apples Grow? *affiliate link
• Learning Objective: Layer simple shapes so it looks like some are in front of the other
• Element of Art: Shape (the apples all have the same shape, but could be different sizes)

Robot

• Materials: Crayons
• Book: Robots, Robots Everywhere! *affiliate link
• Learning Objective: Create a robot using only geometric shapes
• Element of Art: Shape (robot uses rectangle and half circle shapes)

Bugs

• Materials: Crayons
• Book: The Mosquito Burrito *affiliate link
• Learning Objective: The further away similar things are, the smaller they appear
* Element of Art: Shape (bugs are all made from the same shapes)

Cat Face

• Materials: Crayons
• Book: Cookie’s Week *affiliate link
• Video: Video
• Learning Objective: Practice drawing large scale with symmetry
• Element of Art: Shape (cat head shapes match each other on both sides)

Easy Cow

• Materials: Crayons
* Book: Cows Can Moo Can You? *affiliate link
• Learning Objective: Draw a familiar animal starting with basic geometric shapes
• Element of Art: Shape (cow body is made from familiar shapes)

Dump Truck

• Materials: Crayons
• Book: Mighty, Mighty Construction Site *affiliate link
• Learning Objective: Use simple geometric shapes to draw a truck
• Element of Art: Shape (truck is made up of different shapes)

Children

• Materials: Crayons
• Book: My Magical Choices – Teach Kids to Choose a Great Day *affiliate link
• Learning Objective: Introduction to drawing bodies, with just a few simple shape
• Element of Art: Shape (arm and leg shapes are attached to a body shape)

Castle

• Materials: Crayons
• Book: The Very Last Castle *affiliate link
• Video: Link
• Learning Objective: Encourage creative storybook drawing with classic shape of a castle
• Element of Art: Shape (castle doors and towers made from simple shapes)

Tug Boat

• Materials: Crayons
• Book: Scout the Mighty Tugboat  *affiliate link
• Learning Objective: Practice drawing straight and curved lines to make a form of transportation.
• Element of Art: Shape (simple shapes can make a nice drawing of a boat)

COLOR UNITS

Chameleon

• Materials: Crayons
• Video: Video
• Book: A Color of His Own *affiliate link
• Learning Objective: Draw an animal with basic shapes and learn rainbow order
• Element of Art: Color (learn rainbow order of color)

Alphabet Art

• Materials: Painting
• Book: AlphaOops! The Day Z Went First *affiliate link
• Learning Objective: Review the alphabet while learning how to control watercolor paint
• Element of Art: Color (letters show up best when the crayon and background are different)

Minion

• Materials: Crayons
• Book: Minions: 5-Minute Stories *affiliate link
• Video: Link
• Learning Objective: Draw popular character from movie, using simple geometric shapes
• Element of Art: Color (what makes this character familiar is his famous yellow color)

Shop

• Materials: Crayons
• Book: Calm at the Restaurant *affiliate link
• Learning Objective: Introduction to drawing buildings and writing signs
• Element of Art: Color (bright colors will help people see the shop from faw away)

Color Wheel for Display

• Materials: Crayons
• Learning Objective: Learn about primary, secondary, warm and cool color
• Element of Art: Color and intro to color groups

SPACE UNITS

Neighborhood

• Materials: Crayons
• Book: Arthur’s Neighborhood *affiliate link
• Learning Objective: Draw their own neighborhood, or just practice drawing buildings
• Element of Art: Space (intro to thinking about how much space buildings take up)

Bear Face

• Materials: Crayons
• Book: Baby Bear Baby Bear, What Do you See? *affiliate link
• Learning Objective: Practice drawing large scale, and filling an entire sheet of paper
• Element of Art: Space (bear head takes up ALL of the space of the paper)

TEXTURE UNITS

Cat Collage

• Materials: Collage
• Book: Cookie’s Week *affiliate link
• Learning Objective: Markers and newsprint can make a cat that has visual texture
• Element of Art: Texture (specifically, implied texture, as in newsprint looks fuzzy to the eye)