Early Childhood

Artworks by Calder and Mia, kindergarten.

The Essential Question
How can students use art tools in different ways to create a collage?

Objective
Students will create a collage by using primary colors, different lines and shapes, and printing with recycled cardboard.

Materials
white mixed-media paper, construction paper (red, yellow, and blue), glue, scissors, black tempera paint, cut squares of recycled cardboard

Procedures
1. Discuss the Essential Question. Introduce students to the work of Piet Mondrian through a visual presentation.
2. Review the primary colors. Incorporate the video for the song “Primary Colors” by OK Go.
3. Demonstrate cutting and gluing various shapes onto construction paper. Have students practice cutting a few different shapes.
4. Revisit Mondrianʼs work and ask students to identif y the primary colors, horizontal lines, and vertical lines they see. Then introduce the concept of neutral colors such as black, brown, gray, and white.
5. Demonstrate how to create various lines by dipping cardboard into black paint and pressing it onto paper.
6. Using what they have learned, students create their own primary color compositions using cut-paper shapes and the cardboard printing technique.

Assessment
Did students use the primary colors? Were different types of lines and shapes used? Was the printing technique used correctly?

Emily Thaler is an art teacher at Bannockburn Elementary School in Bethesda, Maryland.