Unit 2: 2nd Grade
Day 1 & 2
Mix and Match (Color and Value)
Objective: In these lessons students will see how artist use color and value in
their artworks. Students will create artworks using color and value mixing and
matching
Resources: Book: “Art Everywhere”, Harcourt Publishers
Lesson 6: Colors Work Together
Objective: Students will use primary colors to make secondary colors. Students
will create a Rainbow Pinwheel
Resources: Artworks: “Balloons for a Dime” by Jonathan Green
Vocabulary: primary colors, secondary colors
Materials: 9x9 #80 drawing paper, tempera paint (red, yellow, blue), paint brush,
water, paper towels, pencil (for name only)
Teach: Begin by asking “Can you find a red hat, a yellow shirt, and a blue balloon in
the painting?” Tell students that red, yellow and blue are the primary colors. Ask
them “What other colors do they see?” Tell them that primary colors can be mixed
to make the secondary colors, orange, green and violet. Tell them that a color
wheel shows colors in rainbow order. While looking at the color wheel ask “What
two colors make orange? Green? Violet?
Create: Students will mix colors and paint them in rainbow order front and back of
their paper. Students will fold their paper in a triangle and then into a smaller
triangle. They will cut in from each corner on the folds up to an inch. Glue each
right corner to the middle. Add a brad and a straw to finish.
Assessment: Rainbow Pinwheel, Writing Journal
Day 3 & 4
Lesson 7: Warm and Cool Colors
Objective: Students will paint a self-portrait using warm or cool colors to show
how they feel (a mood).
Resources: Artwork: “La Era” by Diego Rivera and “The Waterlily Pond” by Claude
Monet, student examples
Vocabulary: warm colors, cool colors
Materials: 9x12 #80 drawing paper, tempera paint (warm color: red, yellow and
orange or cool colors: blue, green and violet), peach and brown, paintbrushes, paper
towels, water cups, pencil (for name only)
Teach: Ask: “How does each painting make you feel?” Tell the students that
colors can make us feel certain ways. Red, orange and yellow are warm colors.
Blue, green and violet are cool colors. Cool colors can help make pictures feel cool
and calm. Warm colors give art more energy and can make pictures seem hot.
Create: Students will paint a picture of themselves doing their favorite thing.
They will use mostly warm or cool colors to show how they feel.
Assessment: Mood Painting, Writing Journal
Day 5 & 6
Lesson 8: Light and Dark Colors
Objective: Students will use tints and shades to create a still-life.
Resources: Artwork: “Violet Light” by Gustavo and “Bouquet and Cat” by Suzanne
Valadon, Teacher Example
Vocabulary: value, tint, shade, still-life
Materials: 12x18 #80 drawing paper, scrapbook paper, scissors, glue, tempera
paint (warm colors, black and white), pencil (for name only)
Teach: Ask: “What do these paintings show?” “Which parts are light colors?” Tell
the students that the value of a color is how light or dark it is. You make a tint, or
lighter color, by mixing a color with white. You make a shade, or darker color, by
mixing a color with black.
Plan: Students will think about their favorite flowers.
Create: Students will cut out a vase from the scrapbook paper and glue it onto a
sheet of paper. Students will make tints and shades, using them to paint many
flowers and leaves.
Reflect: Which parts of your flowers are light?
Which parts are dark?
Assessment: Fall Bouquet Painting, Writing Journal
Day 7
Lesson 10: Colors in Seascape
Objective: Students will create a crayon-resist seascape.
Resources: Artwork: “Gloucester Harbor” by Winslow Homer
Vocabulary: seascape, horizon line
Materials: 9x12 #80 drawing paper, crayons, watercolor paint, water cups,
newspaper, paper towels, pencil (for name only)
Teach: Ask: “What is going on in this painting?” Tell students that a seascape is
an artwork that shows a water setting, like the sea. Ask “What colors did the
artist use to show water? Why?” “Can you find the line where the sky and the
water meet?” Tell them this is called the horizon line.
Plan: Students will think about all the things you can find on the ocean and in the
ocean.
Create: Students will draw a horizon line. Students will use crayons to draw boats
then add plants and animals under the water. Students will then paint over their
picture using watercolor paints. Making the water darker at the bottom.
Reflect: What colors
Assessment: Free-Form Flip Art
Day 8 & 9
Pablo Picasso’s Shapes (Art-Social Studies Connection)
Objective: To look at an Artist work and see how they use shapes in their work.
Resources: Artwork: “Three Musicians”, “Self-Portrait with Palette”, and “The
Enameled Casserole” by Pablo Picasso
Teach: Tell students that Pablo Picasso was an artist who likes to use geometric
shapes in interesting ways. He left out details so that his artworks did not look
like real life. They are abstract.
DID YOU KNOW? Picasso sometimes put a clown in his art. Which musician is a
clown? What shapes tell you this?
Think About Art: Ask: “Do the people and things in Picasso’s paintings look real?
Tell why or why not.
Lesson 5: Shapes and People (2 days)
Objective: Students will create a picture of people that they like. They will
create a frame around the picture creating a pattern.
Resources: Artwork: “My Family Before I Was Born” by Luis Jaso and “Student
Art” by Antavio, student examples
Vocabulary: portrait, self-portrait
Materials: 9x12 #50 drawing paper, colored pencils, crayons, pencil
Teach: Ask: “ What shapes do you see in these artworks?” A portrait shows what
a person or a group looks like. In a self-portrait, an artist paints himself or
herself. Explain that today they will draw a picture of their favorite people in
their lives. Brainstorm with the students. Show them how to fold their paper to
make a frame, Tell them that they will also add a shape/color pattern in the
frame. Show them the student examples.
Plan: Students will think about their family or another group of people they would
like to draw.
Create: Students will fold the edges of their paper to make the frame. Students
will draw their group portrait. Students will create a pattern in the frame.
Reflect: What lines and shapes did you use in your portrait?
Assessment: Favorite-People Portrait
Day 8
Unit 1 Review and Reflect
Objective: Students will review the vocabulary and concepts that they learned in
Unit 1.
Resources: Book: Art Everywhere
Vocabulary: lines, outline, free-form shapes, portrait, geometric shapes, selfportrait, movement, organic shapes.
Lesson: Art Journal Cover
Objective: Students will create a line and or shape pattern on the cover of their
art journal. They will also have a color pattern.
Resources: Teacher and student examples.
Vocabulary: Pattern
Materials: 12x6 light colored construction paper, pencils, markers, colored pencils,
construction paper crayons.
Teach: “Ask: What does a pattern do?” Have students give examples of line and
shape patterns that you draw on the board. Then have them give you examples of a
color pattern. Talk about simple patterns “ABAB” and complex patterns “AAB” or
“ABBC”. Show students the Rubric and how their artwork will be graded. Show
them examples of a “4’, “3”, “2” and “1”.
Plan: Students will think about the type of pattern they want to do.
Create: Students will begin by drawing their pattern with a pencil, outlining with a
marker then using colored pencils, construction paper crayons or markers will color
in their pattern.
Reflect: What is your shape and/or line pattern? What is your color pattern?
Assessment: Artwork
Day 9
Lesson: Finish their pattern, Bind their journal and write about
art.
Objective: Students will finish their patterns on the cover of their journal. After
the teacher staples the papers inside the students will bind the end. Then the
students will find their picture of their favorite-people portrait and write about
what they drew.
Resources: art journal covers, favorite-people portrait
Vocabulary: pattern, binding
Materials: art journals, markers, colored pencils, construction paper crayons, 3x6
construction paper, fancy scissors, glue sticks, pencils, self portraits
Teach: Show students that after they have finished coloring in their patterns on
their journal covers that they will bring their cover to me and I will fill it with note
book paper. They will take a small piece of construction paper fold it in half long
ways and cut off the open edge using the fancy scissors. They will put glue on the
inner side and of the construction paper and glue this over the staples. They are
to write their name with a dark marker on the binding on the front side. Then find
their favorite-people portrait on the back counter. They are to write about what
they drew. Making sure they use a capital and the beginning of the sentence a
period at the end and spaces in between words.
Create: Students will finish their journal cover and bind it then write about art.
Reflect: What did you write about in your journal?
Assessment: Art Journal