Palisadian-founded Crayon Collection has put together creative activities for kids to do while spending time at home. Here are steps to complete Chance Abstraction—a project developed by artist Lesley Vance.
Objective: Students explore line, color, shape and space by creating an intentionally abstract drawing. In addition to developing creativity, this lesson helps strengthen students’ listening and math skills.
Age: Kindergarten and up
Time: 45 minutes
Material: Paper, crayons
Focus: STEM, visual arts (line, color, shape, space)
Core standards: Common Core: Count to 100 by ones and by tens.
Visual Arts: Identify the elements of art in objects in nature, in the environment and in works of art, emphasizing line, color, shape/form and texture.
Opening (five minutes):
Distribute paper. Ask students to brainstorm examples of lines.
How many ways can you draw a line?
Does a line have to be straight?
Or can it be curved?
Show students examples of lines: straight, curved, zig-zagged, diagonal, etc.
Introduce the idea of connecting dots and show an example of connecting randomly drawn dots using different types of lines.
Do you know what it means to connect dots?
Instruction and Guided Practice (10 minutes):
Step 1: Please pick out five different colored crayons, then choose one color to begin.
Step 2: Count out the number of letters in your name. You can count with your fingers if you need to.
Ok, now for each letter of your name draw the corresponding same number of dots. Show an example on the white board as needed.
My name is XXXXX, which has # letters in it. Now, I will draw # number of dots on my page.
Step 3: Next, connect the dots using different types of lines. Connect the last dot with the first dot, so that you create a closed shape. Draw an example on the white board as needed.
Step 4: Choose a new color and draw the same number of dots as your age. For example, if you are 5 years old, then you’d draw five new dots all over the page. Spread out the dots!
Step 5: Now, connect these dots to create a new shape. Remember to connect the last dot to the first dot so that your shape is closed.
Step 6: Choose a different colored crayon and pick your favorite number between five and 10. Draw this many dots on your page. Spread them out as much as you want, allowing for your new dots to overlap with your other shapes. Connect these dots, as you have done before and make sure to close the shape by connecting the last dot to the first dot.
Step 7: Finally, color in your abstract shapes! You should now have three overlapping forms containing many shapes within them. Go ahead and color each of these shapes with different colors and textures. You can use textures like lines, heavy coloring, or light coloring. Have fun with it!
Work Time (25 minutes)
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