Paul Klee Faces

My first graders looked at the works of Paul Klee this month.  We talked about how much he loved children's art and tried to capture it's playfulness in his own work. We saw that he uses bold shapes, colors and lines.

We ended by looking at his most famous piece, Head of A Man.  Then we drew our own large playful faces using geometric shapes on black paper.  Then we colored our drawings with pastels. It was most kids' first experiences with pastels and they really had a ball. (Although I'm sure their mothers cursed me about the mess on their clothes.)

We talked about color temperature and the kids did warm colored faces and cool backgrounds (or vice versa) then finished the project by redrawing the original drawing over the top with white and black chalk.  I think they turned out awesome. They are just what I imagine when I think of elementary art.  Sometimes it just has to be fun.