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

Before the Visit Mini-Lesson

What's a museum?
Before your visit to the museum, talk to your students about the Morris Museum of Art. Ask questions like “Who can tell me what a museum is? Now that we know what a museum is, what things might we see when we visit?” This helps students create a definition in their own words. Remember to mention that the Morris Museum of Art focuses on Southern artwork. The Morris has artwork and objects from the late eighteenth century to the present day: paintings, photos, sculptures, and even furniture that were made in the South or made by Southern artists.

Museum: a place devoted to the care, study, and display of objects of lasting interest or value; a place where artworks are shown.

What's a docent
Introduce the concept of a docent. After defining a museum, you could say, for example, “Museums have their own teachers, just like schools. They are called docents. When you visit the museum, a docent will teach you about the things that you will see.“

Docent: a person who leads guided tours through a museum; a teacher of the museum

Who are our “Museum Friends?”
Explain to students that when they go to visit the Morris Museum of Art, they will see museum and security staff who can answer any questions. They are also there to protect you and the artwork. They are our museum friends.

What are “Museum Manners”
Talk to students about helping the museum protect the art by being careful when walking around the museum. The Morris Museum of Art has a special set of rules called “M & M's” or Museum Manners. The M & M's include:

• Look with your eyes, not your hands. This includes the art and the walls.
• Do the “Museum Walk”: walk with you hands behind your back or close to your sides. This helps us remember not to touch.
• Listen while others are talking. Talk in quiet voices so everyone can be heard.
• No running. If you run, you might damage an artwork.

Explain to students how important these M & M's are.

Focusing on One Artwork

Ida Kohlmeyer, Synthesis 90–A, 1990–94.
Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, Georgia
View a larger image of this artwork.

While focusing on one artwork, you can use this discussion guidelines to help your students get prepared for learning about primary and secondary colors and shapes. Before you begin the discussion questions, show the artwork and tell students the title, artist's name, and date.

• “Let's look at the painting carefully. What shapes do you see?” As they name shapes, pick a couple that they list and ask students to trace the shape in the air with their finger.
• “Let's pretend that we are a shape in this artwork.” Point to a specific line. "How would you move if you were this line or shape?" This is good for squiggly and zigzag lines. It helps students understand shapes and movement in an artwork.
• colors in the painting. Can you find these colors around the room?” Introduce the primary colors: red, blue, and yellow. Begin to talk about mixing colors.
• “Have you ever painted before? Have you swirled and mixed colors together?” Explain that secondary colors (purple, orange, and green) are primary colors that have been mixed together. You mix red and blue to get purple, red and yellow to get orange, and blue and yellow to get green.

Activity: Mixing Colors with Food Coloring
To illustrate how you can mix primary colors to produce secondary colors, conduct this very short activity that involves minimal materials. The steps are illustrated in the photographs.

Materials:

• Three clean glass jars (Mason jars work well) with lids and without labels
• Red, blue, and yellow food coloring
• Enough water to fill the three jars
• Newspaper and paper towels for cleanup

Procedures:

1. Fill the three jars completely with water. Call on one volunteer to put one to two drops of red food coloring into one of the jars. With the lid tightly on, shake!
2. Have two more volunteers do the same with the blue and yellow food coloring, both in separate jars. Shake over newspaper, just in case there are any spills.
3. Call on another volunteer to put one to two drops of blue food coloring into the red jar. Allow the students to see the colors slowly mix. What color is it becoming? Shake well.
4. Do the same with the remaining two jars, placing the red in the yellow jar and the yellow in the blue jar. They have produced the secondary colors: purple, orange, and green!
5. You can also read a book on color. There is a book suggestion list at the end of the After the Visit mini-lesson. A good one is Mouse Paint, by Ellen Stoll Walsh.

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