My Hands, Lines and Pattern

I love to start the 1st graders off with this little lesson I got out of the book Hooked on Art.

 We began by talking about the Elements of Art and how they are what artist use to make art. I believe line is the foundation of the elements, so I always start there. We discussed the 5 types of line with a little.... not really a song, but kinda, sorta a chant that the kids love and remember year after year. It goes a little like this: (complete with hand motions)

"Laying down line, Stand up line, Slash! Curvy curvy curvy, andddddd

a Zig and a Zag and a Zig Zig Zag!"

Thank you again Pam Hickman!

The kids love to sing the Zig zag part over and over when they work on line projects. 

Then we talk about the Principle Pattern! I usually find patterns with the students. I'll line them up by shirt colors or something and ask the others to guess the pattern. They eat that up!

Then comes the Project.

Materials: any size paper, black crayons, color crayons, and your hand!

Students begin by tracing their hands with a black crayon 5 times for the 5 types of line. They may overlap or trace all around.

Then, still using the black crayon they draw in the 5 types of line. They could use  one line to each hand or mix them up.

Finally, students use color crayons to make patterns.

I always tell them to color heavy and dark!

"Are you in Kindergarten?" I'll ask.

"No!" 

"Good, then I want to see 1st grade coloring!"

The results are awesome!!