Art Bridge with Shellie Olsen's Class: Lesson 8: Artists' Portfolios and Line Crepe Paper Piece

For this lesson, I tried to shoot two birds with one stone. And to be honest.. sometimes this is a great thing, but for first graders, it leaves a lot of room for them to miss the point a bit. If I could do it over again, I would make my emphasis a bit more! However, as the kids got into the activity, they had a lot of fun and I think they learned a lot about value and lines as well!
Basically, Mrs. Olsen and I had talked about how we wanted the kids to get a look at what an artist's portfolio looks like, and to introduce them to their own portfolios as they are young budding artists. I brought in my art portfolio and showed the kids 4 of my original pieces that I have created (mainly from this semester). Each piece was specifically chosen to be shown because it had or was composed of "lines." This led to us defining what a line really is and me giving them a visual quiz of sorts on different pieces and what pats of the composition could be counted as lines. I explained the purpose and wonder of "your very own" portfolio and then showed them the portfolios I have made for each child (thick black construction paper, halved, stapled, and labeled). I love seeing their excitement levels when they receive things! It makes my job even more enjoyable! :)
After our line discussion, I started pulling out pre-cut strips of crepe paper from a box that I had on a table. They described these strips to me (jagged, short, long, smooth, flowy, etc,.) I then told them that they would use their best "painting skills" and paint a variety of lines to create a solid composition on their own piece of watercolor paper. This paper would eventually be used to decorate the cover of their portfolio! They each grabbed a handful of strips and began arranging them on paper. They then took paintbrushes dipped in water and patted down the strips. Once the strips had dried, the crepe paper left a beautiful bleeding! This led us to talk about value as well.

It really was a lot to cover in 45 minutes, but at the end of the day, I would do it again!