Impressionism

In second grade, I teach the major styles of art: Realism, Abstract and Impressionism. 

One of my proudest teacher moments came years ago, when I walked past a classroom and heard the teacher starting to teach abstract words.  I noticed the word abstract written on the board, so I hung around to hear more.  Several students related what they had learned about abstract art in my class.  

This is my favorite way to teach Impressionism.

Students read the Mike Venezia book on Monet.  Since the major purpose of impressionism is to show how something looks with the light on it, we color in a heart using impressionist "brush strokes" with oil pastels.  Students choose one color for the entire heart.  They use light colors on one half of the heart and dark colors on the other half.  I show students how to check the color wheel to find the compliment of their chosen heart color.  To keep their colors bright, Impressionists used compliments (opposites on the color wheel) side by side, but usually avoided mixing them. 

 

 

To finish, I let students use paper edgers (we call them "crazy cuts") to trim a paper frame and decorate with scrap paper.  The results are not perfect, but charmingly child-like.  They make a wonderfully colorful display.