Teaching Art for Any Age

I've recently embarked on a project in which I get to teach art to home-schooled children. This means teaching to multiple ages in a single lesson. When teaching 3rd- and 5th-graders in elementary schools for my grand-nieces and grand-nephews, I had already experienced the reuse and adaptation of projects. It is important to choose the right project that employs an element or principle of art while taking advantage of or enhancing the existing skills of your students. Here are nine projects that I have adapted for any age from elementary school age children to retired seniors.

1. Salt Painting

• Works for all ages
• Requires watercolor paints and salt
• May also paint with spices

Watercolors is a great medium for teaching any age. Adding salt is a great way to add texture and fun to the project. My Color Wheel Sky project was inspired by the colorful artwork of German Expressionist, Franz Marc and Russian Abstract Expressionist, Wassily Kandinsky. Kandinsky's concentric circles was always one of my favorites. When using watercolors and salt, the colors blend together with the salt accentuating the effect, turning the sky-scapes into Impressionist works.

My 5th-graders went outside the box and created some wonderful color schemes and interpretations of my project constraints.

Spice Girl, Patterson

Seniors from my class at Franke Tobey Jones Senior University created their own watercolor compositions, learning resist techniques, and experimenting with salt in their paintings. Since watercolor painting is such a popular topic at FTJ, I had to offer my version as Salt Painting.

Later, in an online Circle of Love class, sponsored by Heart Art Healing, we learned to paint with spices. Using spices instead of traditional watercolors or experimenting with salt is a way of incorporating science into an art lesson.

2. +/- Space

• Leaf project works for younger students (used for 3^rd-graders)
• Manet ‘Vase’ project works for older students
• Requires 12x18 construction paper and an ability to draw (used for 5^th-graders)
• Manet ‘Notan’ Project works for older students (would be fun for teens)

5th-Grade Japanese Notan Project

3rd-Grade Leaf Project

Positive/Negative Space is one of my favorite concepts to teach and the projects may be adapted to any age. 

While I haven't done such lessons with Seniors, I can definitely see both of my Manet projects being used in a 2-day session with them. I'll have to see what the FTJ Sr. University Administrator thinks about such projects.

3. Contrast

• Dali ‘Hand’ project using opposite color washable markers works for younger students
• Adding Zentangles makes it a great project for older students, even adults

My Contrast lesson is inspired by Spanish Surrealist, Salvador Dali's Persistence of Memory. It is the perfect example of the use of contrasting color and value. Everyone can trace their own hand. And Zentangles are amazing!

Contrasting Construction Paper &
Sharpie Zentangles

Concentric Circles &
Washable Markers

I enjoy teaching students about color. You can use the color wheel to teach vocabulary: analogous,  primary & secondary, opposites (contrasting), or warm/cool colors. 

4. Self-Portraits

• Picasso Cubist self-portraits worked for 3^rd-graders
• Reynolds wrapping paper self-portraits worked for 5^th- and 6^th-graders
• Also had success using magazines, patterned paper, and wrapping paper for seniors

Self-portraits are common to many artists, such as Rembrandt and Picasso, with portraiture being popular in art galleries throughout the world. 

5th-Grade Patterned Self-Portraits

3rd-Grade Portraits

A Cubist self-portrait inspired by Picasso is an elementary way to introduce drawing the proportions of a face and learning what a profile is.

More challenging is making your selfie from patterned wrapping paper cutouts, inspired by portrait artists, Gilbert Stuart and Sir Joshua Reynolds. My collage portrait class with seniors was also a great success.

5. Op Art Weaving

• Worked for 5^th-graders. Referenced a video demonstration.
• May work for younger students with some assistance from an adult or teen helper.

Op Art Weaving Inspired by Victor Vasarely

Op and Pop Art are genres that can intrigue young students, especially when showing them optical illusions. Since many of my older students prefer not to get messy, I chose to use scissors and paper and weaving to create our Op Art. The results were spectacular!

6. Pissarro Ocean Scene

• Requires warm and cool colors of chalk pastels and white tempera paint
• Worked for 5^th-graders and should also work for much younger students
• Older students won’t want to get messy and may find it more like finger-painting

5th-Grade Seascapes Inspired by Pissarro

There are many ways to teach budding artists about warm and cool colors. A fun project for younger students is to make a torn paper collage using either warm or cool colored tissue paper and your Grandma's liquid starch. The resulting artwork may then be used as a background for follow-on projects. A messier project involves chalk pastels and white tempera paint to create an ocean scene or seascape. Younger students may like this project more than older students.

7. Movement Compositions

•  Requires cutting out complicated figures from a template
• Younger students may use their own stick figure drawings or get help from an adult
• As this project is also about composition, an option would be to skip the figure cutouts

Movement Composition Inspired by N.C. Wyeth

Students may find this project challenging because of the scissor skills that are required and the repetitive cutting of complicated figures out of oaktag. The project may be adapted to younger students by simplifying the cutouts. Everyone should be able to cut out geometric shapes (from scraps) for the background.

8. Miró Composition

• Works for all ages
• Requires cutting our simple shapes from construction paper
• Requires using recycled newspaper and collecting it prior to class
• Can highlight any element of composition, but works great for balance and movement

My Sample from Online Class with Adults

This Miró Composition lesson is my favorite, second only to my Manet +/- Space lesson. It also worked for my adult online class on Balance. Miró is an acquired taste but his People and Dog in the Sun is fun and may be used as a warmup exercise for visual observation. I actually found seven figures (mostly dogs) in this painting and made stick puppets out of them to help students visualize them.

9. Millet Layered Landscapes

• Worked for 5^th- and 6^th-graders, but should be fine for younger students
• Requires some simple drawing skills and some help with shading
• Requires chalk or oil pastels.
• Crayons may not be as good for blending and
• Colored pencils may take too much time to cover the paper.

5th-Grade Layered Landscapes
Inspired by Millet

Perspective is one of the more challenging concepts to teach about. You can also teach vocabulary like foreground, middle ground, and background with my Layered Landscapes lesson, which was inspired by French Realist, Jean-François Millet. Simply drawing three different sized trees and arranging them properly helps students understand how size and placement create the illusion of space. The shading of the hills also shows how color saturation, light/dark hue or value also contribute to the effect.