LINES and Snakes - 1st

"Lines and Snakes" is the first project of the year with 1st grade. I orginally saw this idea over here on. http://artteacheradventures.blogspot.com. I wanted to take this lesson and adapt it to Tennessee standards, and some lessons that I have done in the past.

I like to start the year off with a simple unit, introducing lines. I have found that while most 1st graders are familiar with several kinds of lines, so few of them are actually able to articulate to me the definition of a line.

Line- A point that moves through space

Abstract, right? It's a difficult concept to teach little minds. What's a point? What's space? What do you mean that this little dot is going to move through space? Huh???

Lesson 1- Introduction to a Line:

I start by placing markers or crayons on every table. I prefer markers, because of the opacity of the marks. Every student is instructed to place the tip of the marker on their paper, and lift it back up. 

"What mark did that leave behind? Why yes! That is a dot!"

"How do I make a line? I'm going to make this dot (or point) Move Through Space! Let's move through space like a straight line!"

"Now let's brainstorm as many lines as we can think of. Bumpy, straight, wavy, vertical, zig zag, dotted, loopy! So many different kinds of lines!"

Lesson 2: Line Snake

Tennessee Art Standards: 

1.2  Demonstrate an understanding of a variety of techniques.

2.1  Identify and understand the elements of art.

6.2  Identify connections between visual art and other disciplines in the curriculum.    

Math Common Core:

1.MD.1 Order three objects by length; compare the lengths of two objects indirectly by using a third object

Objectives: 

*We can create artwork that shows our understanding of Lines. 

*We can measure units of length when creating our Line Snake artwork.

In this project, we are going to take the knowledge from a previous lesson and apply it to our Art projct.  After a review, we discuss the shapes of snakes and then draw a snake on our paper, using a curvy line. The snakes should be nice and fat, so as to allow room for our patterns. The snakes will be divided into FIVE separate sections. How many lines will we need to create five segments? (Four!) Each segment will house a different kind of line. See?

Students will then complete filling in each segment with a different kind of line pattern. Upon finishing the snake, students should fill in the background with a variety of lines.

Last step... Watercolor! Since we so lovingly drew these little masterpieces with crayon, they work perfectly for our old friend, the watercolor resist! Oh man, these drawings look amazing with that extra splash of color. This is an optional step, of course. I just think they look fabulous.