Morris Museum of ArtLearn

Art Elements! Shapes, Colors, Lines, and Patterns for Grades Pre-K and K

After the Visit Mini-Lesson

What did you learn?
Allow time at the beginning of class for students to take turns talking about their visit to the Morris Museum of Art. "Whom did you meet? What did you see? What did you do? What did your docent talk to you about?" Lead the discussion into colors and shapes. Looking back at Synthesis 90-A can help them remember all of the primary and secondary colors and what they know about them.

Activity: Stained-Glass Suncatchers
To reiterate the concept of primary and secondary colors, conduct this activity that uses tissue paper to simulate mixing colors. The steps are illustrated in the photographs.

Materials:

  • One clear plastic lid (Pringles tops, yogurt lids work well) for each student
  • Precut tissue paper in primary colors
  • Glue sticks
  • Newspaper to put on top of tables
  • String

Preparation:
Before class begins, punch a hole into each lid (near the rim) and cut various shapes out of red, blue, and yellow tissue paper. The shapes should be small, about an inch.

Procedures:

  1. Demonstrate "mixing colors" by overlapping different colored shapes together. Explain to the students that they are making suncatchers. They will be creating secondary colors with their primary color tissue paper. These colors will be placed on a plastic lid and will be hung in a window to catch the sun.
  2. Show students how to lay the shapes out on the lids and then carefully glue them down with a glue stick. Be sure not to cover the hole at the top.
  3. Once students have finished gluing, let the suncatchers dry overnight. Tie string through the holes and then hang the suncatchers in front of a window.
  4. Reiterate the concept of mixing colors to create other colors.

Assessment:
Once the suncatchers are hung, have the students sit in a circle and talk about the colors they see. This can be done by going around the circle and allowing everyone to have a chance to answer.

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Book Suggestions:
Here are a few book suggestions that relate to primary and secondary colors, shapes, and museums:

Colors:pMouse Paint, by Ellen Stoll Walsh. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1989.
Colors and shapes: Color Zoo, by Lois Ehlert. Lippincott, 1989.
Shapes: Shapes, Shapes, Shapes, by Tana Hoban. Greenwillow, 1996.
Introduction to museums: Babar's Museum of Art, by Laurent de Brunhoff. Harry N. Abrams, 2003.