Castle and Sun

 

A few years back I did a collage project with year 1 students based on Paul Klee's 1928 painting 'The Castle and the Sun'. You can see my post on that project HERE.

'Castle and Sun'. Paul Klee. 1928.

I recently revisited this iconic panting with year 2 students. Students were asked to "build" their own castle using a pencil and ruler to draw stacked geometric shapes to create walls, towers, doors, windows etc. We began with orange paper and students then used oil pastel to colour the shapes individually before outlining their drawing with black pastel.

 

Warm Sky, Cool Sea

 

I always enjoy teaching warm and cool colours and I think my grade ones did a great job with this lesson which is courtesy of 'Color Like You Mean It'. 

I had my students begin with a "wavy" line across the middle of their page to represent the sea. They then drew a semi circle for the sun (those who would struggle with this were given a paper plate to assist them to draw the shape) and added lines for the rays of the sun (yes, this is the only time this is OK!). I then asked them to practice their best wavy lines to draw in the ocean waves and those who needed more of a challenge could draw spirals too. We outlined in black permanent marker before painting in watercolours. Students were encouraged to mix their own colours as well as using the ones available.

Here Comes The Sun

 

Inspiration: I think these are sort of Aztec inspired, although not by anything directly. They remind me a little of Mysterious Cities of Gold.

The bottom photo shows the work of the entire grade 4 (very small school) on display in the front office. We were inspired by the first bit of Spring sun we have started getting. The students cut circles from thick cardboard and decorated with oil pastels, ink, glue, gold paint and glitter.