Lines Like LeWitt's (sort of!!)

Two years ago, inspired by another blogger, I had Kindergarteners explore the "Bold Lines" of artist, Sol LeWitt (here). Last May I was reminded of LeWitt's work by Rachel over at Color, Collage and Much More (here). Our former kindergarteners are now 2nd graders, so I decided to re-visit LeWitt with a variation of Rachel's more complicated version of assembling and then extending their line. As they worked, I heard a lot of kids saying, "This is REALLY fun!!"

Our first step was to make 2 or 3 small (4 1/2 inch square) line drawings using complementary colors and crayon. I asked students to vary the direction of the line and to start and end at an edge, like these:

These boys started combining their lines right away!!

Today we glued the squares on a larger board (8" X 10"), knowing that we would be extending the line with paint.

Children had a lot of choices to make: where to glue their squares to direct their lines where they wanted them; colors to use to expand the line's width; whether to continue with stripes or have a solid background. This was a great opportunity to focus on laying the brush flat to make a smooth, controlled line.

Sorry for the blurriness of my photo, but you can see how this art lends itself to some dramatic presentation options. One little boy stopped on his way up the hallway as I was putting this up (turning each piece this way and that, trying to decide how to match up the lines) and said, "You know the best thing about art?"
  "What is that?" I replied.
   "There is no way to do it wrong. It is always right!!" he said, smiling.
                             THAT IS WHY I LOVE TEACHING ART!!!!!!!!!