Explore line with a rainy day theme!
It can be tricky to explain to young kids how Art elements express ideas. A huge number of the lines that we are expected to teach early childhood can be found in various forms of water, so a rainy day is a perfect theme for students to explore different types of line!
Pictures on this page are copyrighted, please don't copy my pictures for your resources. If you would like to use my resources in your classroom they are available here.
Important to note: I am writing from my own experiences in the classroom and do not in any way guarantee these projects will work for you. Some of these project ideas are exactly as I did them in the classroom, others have changes to reflect how I would do them next time. You know your student's capabilities and behaviour best. As with anything, always check the safety of all materials and processes and read product instructions carefully before you introduce them to students. Consider the age and maturity of your students before trying any of my ideas.
Major Outcomes
Line: Straight, curvy, wavy, zig zag, broken, dashed, jagged, lines to represent things in the natural environment
Exploring the element of line with a variety of materials
Creating artworks inspired by personal experiences
Personal responses to artworks students view and make
Materials
Canson mixed media paper
Oil pastels
Edicol dye or watercolour paint
A variety of materials to be manipulated into lines (string, ribbon, toothpicks etc.)
Photos of students or people cut outs
This project took about 9 lessons all up, including response time (individual interviews with students). I completed this project with Pre-Primary students as it fits best with their objectives, but it could be done with Year 1 students too. I think it would be too basic for any older than that.
Exploration of Techniques
A fantastic artist to look at for this project is Henri Rousseau. Not only are his artworks
graphic and easy for students to find a narrative, they use lines quite obviously. My focus artwork for this task was The Storm Tossed Vessel.
We first looked at the types of water that were in the picture, and what lines Henri Rousseau used to create them (wavy, diagonal, straight, zig zaggy) A good accompanying resource is this poster.
Then, students had the task of exploring line. Giving the kids a variety of materials to manipulate and explore, such as toothpicks, pipecleaners, wool and ribbon really helped them learn the names of the lines, and gave them a chance to explore them.
After this, we brainstormed as a class what things we might see on a rainy day (lightning, puddles, rainbows, rain etc.) and explored as a class the kinds of lines we might use to draw them. We used oil pastels to practice drawing them- a good introduction to using oil pastels if they had never used them before. Drawing these collaboratively on large sheets of paper is a good idea, as they can use them as references next week.
Artwork by Henri Rousseau (1899) The Storm Tossed Vessel. Retrieved from https://www.wikiart.org/ (Creative Commons)
Start Making Art!
Using the Canson Mixed Media paper, the kids began by drawing a horizon line. A small lesson on what things go on the ground versus what things go in the sky might be useful to you.
Then, the students applied their rain objects to the artwork using oil pastels. Looking at the references from last week, the students became very creative. Before starting, we talked about how white oil pastels can be used to draw 'invisible' lines (for rain) which will show up after the edicol is applied.
In the spirit of exploring materials, I mixed up a range of blues and grays for the students to use on their artwork and I let the students go to town covering the paper. Canson mixed media paper is very hardy and can resist the rough application kids do! But I recommend giving students a quick tute on applying ink in smooth, gentle strokes.
As a final, cute touch, a photo of your kids in a raincoat can be added, or I got my kids to make themselves out of a person cutout to stick on.
Responding
Throughout the project, we spent five minutes or so each lesson just talking about the Storm Tossed Vessel. By the end of it, the students were able to quite confidently explain what they thought the picture was about, and most of them could explain the clues they saw that led them to their conclusion.
Students were all individually interviewed on this subject, as well as what they liked best about their artwork and why.
Resources
Lines in Nature Poster
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