Color, Texture, Shape - Art Project Ages 5-10

Nov 5, 2011
Mary Rayme

Using organic textures as rubbings - © Mary Rayme

Students learn warm and cool colors, natural texture and man made texture, and shape, in this fun art project that also emphasizes teamwork and repetition

This art project is for kids from ages 5-10 and is designed to teach a variety of the elements of design including:

Warm colors and cool colors
Natural textures and man-made textures
Element of design: repetition

Art project materials needed include:

paper, 8-1/2 x 11"
crayons or oil pastels, with protective paper removed
a variety of fresh leaves (they need to be resilient and not dry and crunchy), bark, and other natural textures
a variety of manmade items for textural exploration
pre-cut shapes for smaller kids, shape templates for the larger kids
construction paper, in warm and cool colors only
8-1/2" x 11" transparent page keepers with 3-hole punch edges
yarn or twine
glue

Warm Colors and Cool Colors

Begin the project by talking about warm and cool colors. Warm colors are red, orange and yellow. What objects in nature are this color and why do we associate them with heat? Cool colors are blue, green, purple. Again, what natural objects are this color and why do we associate them with cooler temperatures?

Natural Textures and Man-Made Textures

Talk about textures as a tool in the artist’s tool box and that texture is often used to give information and detail to a work of art. Pass out leaves, bark, and any other natural textures that can be rubbed onto paper. Also include manmade objects that are handy for rubbing. I like to use combs, keys, screens and clothing buttons. Any flat, synthetic, and textural surface works great, even the bottom of a sneaker has a wonderful, man-made texture.

Divide the crayons into warm and cool sets so it is easy for younger kids to make the right color choice of warm or cool. Assign each student the task of creating one sheet of a cool color natural rubbing, and a warm color man made rubbing.

Demonstrate how to place the paper over the texture and how to use the flat of the crayon or oil pastel to create a textural rubbing. You might also consider allowing students to carefully rub any manmade textures that they find around the classroom. Show them how to fill the page with one texture or several textures.

On to Shape!

For younger kids, have warm color and cool colors pre-cut out of construction paper and instruct them to place and glue a shape in the middle of their vertical warm or cool color rubbing. Have the child use the opposite color for shape than they have for the rubbing. So for example, if a child has a green rubbing, they need to choose a red, orange, or yellow color shape.

For older kids, have shape templates ready so they can cut out a circle, square, rectangle, triangle, or hexagon for their rubbing. Remind the kids to use a color temperature that is the opposite of the one that they used for creating their rubbing.

When all of the rubbings are complete with a shape in the middle place all of the sheets into plastic protectors and then tie or tape them into a larger grid pattern or quilt to hang on the wall. Make sure the kids have their names on the back of their paper so the quilt pieces can be properly distributed after the quilt is taken down.

For posterity, consider taking a digital photo of the cool color/warm color, textural art quilt to remind the students how great their artwork looked when it was all together.

This art project that teaches texture, color, and shape takes about two, 40-minute sessions.