Lines
Pre-Kindergartners started the year talking about how artists use line in their artwork. We began by air-drawing various straight, angled, and squiggly lines and then noticed all the different types of lines around us in the classroom. For inspiration, we looked at the drip paintings of Jackson Pollock, known as "Action Jackson". So far the students have explored lines in several ways: "Action Drawing" a variety of lines using crayons and big arm movements on a large poster board, followed by painting more lines with tempera cakes. The children loved seeing how the crayon "resisted" the wet paint. We have folded these posters in half to serve as the students' portfolios for the year. In our next project, we explored line three-dimensionally using thin paper strips to create our own amusement parks complete with spiraling, curling rollercoasters! We followed this up using yarn and noticed the similarities to Jackson's paintings. Then, we looked at the simple, childlike drawings of Paul Klee and made drawings with wet chalk on black paper.