Rainbow Burst with 5 to 7 Year Olds

 

After I returned home from teaching Flying High, the fish kites I taught to 5-7 year olds at the Worcester Art Museum, I received this plea in the afternoon:

Any chance you want to come back tomorrow morning, 10am to 12noon, and teach “Rainbow Burst”?

Painting with a focus on color – you know 5 year olds and paint – like anything goes😊

So I replied: Sure. Why not? What could possibly go wrong? 😀

The lesson plan I was sent involved having the students mix acrylic paints and using glazing medium. 5 year olds? I don't think so. 

A few hours after pulling a lesson out of my as hat, I gathered my supplies. Since I didn't know what was in the supply closet, I brought some paper plates. The kids could trace a circle and with watercolors and using primary colors, we would paint a color wheel.

I had a tear drop prism necklace and Himself gave me a flashlight so the kids could take turns and make rainbows on the wall.

All my materials were packed into the rainbow pencil tote bag Tiggy had made for me.

A trip to the supply closet before class for the watercolor paints, brushes, pencils, paper and paper to cut down for the kids to paint and then would be made into a tube hat, like a chef's toque.

Another instructor was in the closet gathering her materials. She was like you don't normally teach kid classes, what's up. So I told her about subbing. She asked what I was doing and then suggested after the kids traced their circle and divided it into pie slices for painting, to have them go over the pencil lines with crayon. The crayon would act as a resist and the watercolor wouldn't run together. Brilliant!

A trip into the gallery to see Art in the 20th Century. One little boy was nervous and shy about leaving his mother. She was going to wait with him in the lobby until the class returned. I asked him if he wouldn't like to go into the museum to see the paintings. He nodded that he would so I asked everyone to line up behind T.

"and Lizard", he said, holding up a green, stuffed lizard.

"Everyone! Please line up behind T and Lizard!" and we marched into the museum.

We looked at Andy Warhol's soup can, works by Ellsworth Kelly, and Jackson Pollack before going back to the studio.

The aid and I were so busy in class, I didn't get any pictures of the kidlets artwork.

They knew their colors, knew what primary colors were, and knew primary colors made secondary colors. We had to keep reminding them to swish their brush in water before dipping into another color.

In the middle of mixing orange using red and yellow, one tiny, adorable girl wailed: This is not a lovely shade of orange! Sometimes it's so hard to keep a straight face at what comes out of their tiny mouths.

 She had forgotten to swish her brush and the colors in her palette were muddied. A paper towel to the rescue to wipe the muddy yellow paint and to blot the not lovely shade of orange on her paper. She mixed the colors again and joy and rapture! Whew!

While they were busy painting their hats, I had them take turns shining the light through the prism to make rainbows on the wall. That activity was a big hit. 

Some of the kids were thrilled with wearing their hats. The older ones didn't want to. No worries. So another successful class. I make a helluva Kindergartener.