Elementary

The Essential Questions
What lines or shapes can we use to draw a garden of flowers?

Objective
Students will listen to the book Splatter by Diane Alber and create a garden of flowers in a similar way using lines and shapes.

Materials
pencils, sketchbooks, watercolor paper, neon oil pastels, tempera cakes, brushes, cups of water

Procedures
1. Read Splatter or have students listen to the audiobook. The book reviews color mixing to create secondary colors and how flowers can be created using different shapes. Have students name the shapes and types of lines they see in the book.
2. Ask students to practice drawing a flower garden in their sketchbooks, breaking down the ground line, the center of the flowers, the petals, the stems touching the ground, and the sun.
3. Have students draw their final compositions on watercolor paper, then trace over their pencil lines and fill in the sun and flowers with neon oil pastels.
4. Distribute tempera cakes, brushes, and water cups for students to apply color to the ground and sky.

Assessment
Did students follow directions? Did they add oil pastel and paint in the expected areas? Did students use lines and shapes to create their drawing, and can they name them?

Colleen Lam is a visual arts teacher at Edgewater Elementary in Edgewater, Colorado.