It's halfway through July and I think I am finally finding my groove. I think that a lot of my creativity was spent planning activities for my kiddos when school abruptly shut down back in March. I was mentally tired. So, when summer finally arrived I really wanted to do nothing. And then, we went on an adventure and I think my brain was reset (if that's even possible). So now, we are home and taking advantage of every ounce of summer that we can. . . even in the middle of a pandemic.
Every summer, the kids and I have tried to some sort of challenge for the summer. We've done random Pinterest projects, STEM projects, and last year we did an art challenge where we studied 6 artists and their very different styles of art. (I will link them at the bottom of the page). This year, when going through some of my old teaching files from my pre-mom life, I found an art journal I had my class create, studying different techniques and skills of art. And so, we are doing at least one a week. This may just continue on in the fall, since we are not going back to the classroom, but are doing distance learning, so keep an eye out. My goal is to highlight our projects weekly on the blog.
Why art? First of all, I am in no way an artist. I draw stick figures. My circles are really wobbly blotchy round-ish things. But despite my artistic shortcomings, art is everywhere and art is important. It gives kids confidence and allows them to express themselves in ways that speech cannot. It also is some great time with my kids when we sit around the table to create together. We have amazing conversations and it's just a blast. My boys are getting older and my oldest is now taller than me (sniff sniff), and I want to take advantage of every moment I can. So, art time is also our designated us time, where they aren't in front of the tv, video games or playing with legos. It's one of my favorite times.
This week we talked about two different topics: Color and Media.
Color is fun, because it begins with the color wheel. I had a printable that I have no idea where I got it from, but the IKEA kids plates are the perfect size to trace a circle onto a piece of paper, then use a ruler to draw your lines. (I'd probably do the circle and lines for the smaller kids and let the big kids take care of their own).
The color wheel starts out with talking about the Primary Colors - Red, Yellow, and Blue. We first painted those colors on every other triangle of the circle. Then we talked about Secondary colors and actually used those two primary colors to mix paints and create the purple, orange, and green.
The next lesson we did continued with color and taking it a step farther to make different shades and tints. Shades are what happens to a color when small amounts of black are added into the color and tints are what happen when white is added slowly.
(Sorry about it being upside down. . . oops!). We started out with the primary colors, but added in the secondary color green. You can really do this with all 6 colors if you wanted. We started out with a blotch of each original color and then 1 drop of black, mix, and blotch. Then 2 drops and 3 drops. Then we did the same thing for white.
Media
Once we had finished studying color, we moved on to Media. Media is really the different ways we can achieve the same design, but using different mediums.
For this project, we divided our paper into fourths. I chose a rainbow and Ethan chose a grassy scene with birds and a sun and Weston kind of did what ever he felt like (partly because he started out with the solar system and it was going to take forever. . . he didn't have time for that!). We started with oil pastels (if you don't have these, crayons are okay, too!) and drew our picture. Then we moved on to paper scraps and made a collage. Finally, we pulled out the acrylic paints and water colors and painted our picture.
I absolutely loved how this came out and even though both boys took a different approach to the project they both turned out great and got to explore different forms of media. I really want to mention that with art, it's okay if each kid steers from the original outcome and does there own thing. They both achieved the same thing . . . in getting to see how different mediums work, but each one shows the personality of each child. That is what is so much fun about art . . . there really is no wrong way!
Are you taking time to get creative? Are your kids? I'd love to hear what you are doing and how you are keeping sane. Feel free to tag @jolieklassen on instagram or @outoftherightbrain on facebook to share your creations! Or feel free to leave a comment. . . this makes my day!
And as promised. . . links to previous summer challenges:
Summer Pin Challenge 2017 - This is the last post from that series, but all previous are linked at the bottom of the post.
Also, as a bonus, we are also working on some STEM projects. . . but due to time, those will only be shared on instagram. Don't forget to follow me over there!
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