Materials:
Construction paper: sheets of black and small pieces of other colours
Glue
Scissors
Pencil
Objective:
The student will be able to recognize and duplicate the style of Paul Klee’s “Castle and Sun” painting by making a collage castle using basic shapes: squares, rectangles, triangles and 1 circle for the sun.
Concepts Covered:
Art History, Art Appreciation, Colour, Shape, Line, Cubism and Abstract Art, Collage, Composition, Fine Motor Skill Development
Construction paper: sheets of black and small pieces of other colours
Glue
Scissors
Pencil
Objective:
The student will be able to recognize and duplicate the style of Paul Klee’s “Castle and Sun” painting by making a collage castle using basic shapes: squares, rectangles, triangles and 1 circle for the sun.
Concepts Covered:
Art History, Art Appreciation, Colour, Shape, Line, Cubism and Abstract Art, Collage, Composition, Fine Motor Skill Development
I did this art lesson while covering a month of art classes in an elementary school. The teacher I was in for had already started a Paul Klee inspired drawing project with the older grades similar to this project at Dali's Moustache. I wanted to adapt it to younger grades and found the inspiration in the form of collage.
We started the lessons just like the older grades did: by looking at a slideshow of Klee's work and learning a bit about the artist himself. We talked about the shapes and colours he uses, especially in the more abstract pieces. Then I showed the students "Castle and Sun" but didn't tell them the name. I asked them only think about what they thought the picture might be, with explicit instructions to not say anything out loud so everyone could develop their own idea. We got a lot of interesting responses to this. Everything from a castle, to a city or town, to a mountain and even a couple of students who immediately and very confidently declared that it was a dog.
Afterward we discussed the shapes and colours that Klee used in this particular painting. The children didn't need much coaching to name the squares, rectangles and triangles that make up the castle, and of course, the big circle for the sun. We discussed the variety of size and colour as well as the tone of the picture (this discussion can be very simple or more complex depending on the grade level).
The children were instructed that they would make their own pictures in the style of Paul Klee's "Castle and Sun" but instead of painting they would be doing it as a collage. We needed to define collage in most cases, but they caught on to the concept very quickly.
For the Kindergarten classes, I traced the shapes, especially the circles for them ahead of time but I left the grade 1 and 2 students to do that on their own with scraps of construction paper and cups for tracing circles if they wanted to use them. With a quick reminder about the guidelines (only squares, rectangles and triangles and one circle for the sun, different sizes and colours of shapes, etc.) I pretty much let them go to it on their own. Many of them added in details of their own or shapes other than those specified, but I wasn't too sticky about the rules - creativity is a beautiful thing.
Generally the whole thing took one 50 minute period to finish but it's a good idea to have extra projects on hand for those who finish more quickly than others. I found that all the students really enjoyed this project, even the ones who don't normally like art as much. They were also very good at cleaning up after themselves and sharing paper, glue and scissors with each other. The Kindergarten teacher took their pictures a step further and put up a "Shaping up for Grade 1" bulletin board up with messages from the kids about what they'd accomplished or learned that would help them next year written inside the suns. They said things like: "I can tie my shoes now", "I know all my letters" and so on. It was a lovely way to enhance the project. I regret that I didn't get pictures of any of them.
I made a simple rubric to mark the final results just giving a score out of three for each of the following categories: Used only triangles, squares and rectangles for castle; Showed variety in colours, sizes and shapes used; and Picture resembles a castle in the style of Klee. I was focusing on shape and colour awareness, as well as an ability to follow instruction and mimic the artist's style, but you can adapt the evaluation depending on the focus you want to take with the lesson.
We started the lessons just like the older grades did: by looking at a slideshow of Klee's work and learning a bit about the artist himself. We talked about the shapes and colours he uses, especially in the more abstract pieces. Then I showed the students "Castle and Sun" but didn't tell them the name. I asked them only think about what they thought the picture might be, with explicit instructions to not say anything out loud so everyone could develop their own idea. We got a lot of interesting responses to this. Everything from a castle, to a city or town, to a mountain and even a couple of students who immediately and very confidently declared that it was a dog.
Afterward we discussed the shapes and colours that Klee used in this particular painting. The children didn't need much coaching to name the squares, rectangles and triangles that make up the castle, and of course, the big circle for the sun. We discussed the variety of size and colour as well as the tone of the picture (this discussion can be very simple or more complex depending on the grade level).
The children were instructed that they would make their own pictures in the style of Paul Klee's "Castle and Sun" but instead of painting they would be doing it as a collage. We needed to define collage in most cases, but they caught on to the concept very quickly.
For the Kindergarten classes, I traced the shapes, especially the circles for them ahead of time but I left the grade 1 and 2 students to do that on their own with scraps of construction paper and cups for tracing circles if they wanted to use them. With a quick reminder about the guidelines (only squares, rectangles and triangles and one circle for the sun, different sizes and colours of shapes, etc.) I pretty much let them go to it on their own. Many of them added in details of their own or shapes other than those specified, but I wasn't too sticky about the rules - creativity is a beautiful thing.
Generally the whole thing took one 50 minute period to finish but it's a good idea to have extra projects on hand for those who finish more quickly than others. I found that all the students really enjoyed this project, even the ones who don't normally like art as much. They were also very good at cleaning up after themselves and sharing paper, glue and scissors with each other. The Kindergarten teacher took their pictures a step further and put up a "Shaping up for Grade 1" bulletin board up with messages from the kids about what they'd accomplished or learned that would help them next year written inside the suns. They said things like: "I can tie my shoes now", "I know all my letters" and so on. It was a lovely way to enhance the project. I regret that I didn't get pictures of any of them.
I made a simple rubric to mark the final results just giving a score out of three for each of the following categories: Used only triangles, squares and rectangles for castle; Showed variety in colours, sizes and shapes used; and Picture resembles a castle in the style of Klee. I was focusing on shape and colour awareness, as well as an ability to follow instruction and mimic the artist's style, but you can adapt the evaluation depending on the focus you want to take with the lesson.
The results: a few examples of Grade 1 & 2 students' finished Castle and Sun collages:
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