Primary Colors Project: 3-5

When we were studying Piet Mondrian a while back, third through fifth grade started a collaborative primary color collage project. They began with boxes wrapped in black paper. They then cut apart primary colored construction paper into strips and then in smaller squares. They glued the pieces all over the boxes one side at a time making sure that they overlapped so no black was showing. Now that they are complete, we display them on top of one of our classroom supply cabinets.

Piet Mondrian Art Critiques

All grades have been learning about the famous artist Piet Mondrian to reinforce the concepts of lines, geometric shapes, primary colors, and to incorporate art history. As a part of their study, all students had to choose which of his works, out a limited set of three, they preferred the most. They chose from Composition London, Broadway Boogie-Woogie, and Windmill in Sunlight. Kinder through Third Grade verbally chose and shared with a partner which they preferred and why. Fourth and Fifth Grade wrote their preferences down in the form of a written art critique. The students had to use the elements of art previously learned to explain their choice. The written art critiques were added next to the artworks' poster on our Visual Arts bulletin board. (There are no close-ups of the art critiques because they indicate the student's names and grade levels.)

Piet Mondrian Paintings: Fifth Grade

All grades have been learning about the famous artist Piet Mondrian to reinforce the concepts of lines, geometric shapes, primary colors, and to incorporate art history. As a part of their study, Fifth Grade painted pictures inspired by Broadway Boogie-Woogie. Each student started their painting by drawing two parallel lines from the top of the paper to the bottom with the aid of a ruler. They then repeated this step but horizontally. They then continued by drawing other parallel lines off of those two main lines. After designing the layout of their paintings, they painted in the squares created by the intersections of the parallel lines with two different primary colors. The remaining lines were painted in the third primary color.

Piet Mondrian Paintings: Fourth Grade

All grades have been learning about the famous artist Piet Mondrian to reinforce the concepts of lines, geometric shapes, primary colors, and to incorporate art history. As a part of their study, Fourth Grade painted pictures inspired by Tableau No. IV, 1925. But instead of creating vertical and horizontal lines on a diamond created by diagonal lines, they did the opposite. The students used rulers to draw various intersecting diagonal lines. They then painted in the shapes created by those lines with primary colors leaving some spaces white for a pop.

Piet Mondrian Paintings: Third Grade

All grades have been learning about the famous artist Piet Mondrian to reinforce the concepts of lines, geometric shapes, primary colors, and to incorporate art history. As a part of their study, Third Grade painted pictures inspired by Composition London. Using rulers, the students drew vertical and horizontal lines and painted them black. They then painted in the squares and square rectangles created by those lines with primary colors leaving some shapes white.

Piet Mondrian Collages: Second Grade

All grades have been learning about the famous artist Piet Mondrian to reinforce the concepts of lines, geometric shapes, primary colors, and to incorporate art history. As a part of their study, Second Grade created a Mondrian inspired collage with primary colors, horizontal and vertical lines, and geometric shapes. The students got a piece of construction paper in the three primary colors. They two of the papers in vertical strips. With one set of the strips, they cut them into small square rectangle pieces. They glued the strips into vertical and horizontal lines on the third piece of paper. They then glued the rectangular pieces onto the intersections of those vertical and horizontal lines. This lesson was loosely based on New York City I, 1942.

 

 

Piet Mondrian Collages: First Grade

All grades have been learning about the famous artist Piet Mondrian to reinforce the concepts of lines, geometric shapes, primary colors, and to incorporate art history. As a part of their study, First Grade created a Mondrian inspired collage with primary colors and geometric shapes. They folded a black piece of paper into eight parts. They then glued two primary colored squares or square rectangles in each section starting with the largest. After they glued two shapes per section, they had to figure out which primary color was missing and glue that missing color in the middle with the smallest shape. This step was purposely done separately to promote critical thinking and problem solving. This lesson was inspired by Composition C but definitely with a twist!

Piet Mondrian Collages: Kinder

All grades have been learning about the famous artist Piet Mondrian to reinforce the concepts of lines, geometric shapes, primary colors, and to incorporate art history. As a part of their study, Kindergarten created two different Mondrian inspired collages. The first collage was to glue white strips of paper vertically and horizontally on black paper. They then glued primary colored squares and square rectangles on the white strips. On the second collage, they glued black strips of paper on narrow white paper. They then glued primary colored squares and rectangles of larger sizes in the white spaces. Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow was the inspiration for these pieces.