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Lesson Plans

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Paint With Expression!

Students will create a painting that expresses their emotions.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

Gather all the supplies needed to bring your craft ideas to life! From paints and markers to glue and scissors, our crafts section has everything to spark creativity and make every project truly special.

Steps

  • Step 1

    To set an emotional tone while students are painting with expression, play various types of music. Ask students to create original paintings inspired by each of the musical genre's moods. In addition to picking up on the melody and rhythm, what patterns and visual symbols do  the instruments or voices inspire? As them to move the paint brush to the beat and show movement and emphasis. Change the music from classical to jazz and rock, classical, etc. How do the moods of the art pieces vary?

  • Step 2

    Ask students to focus on color as a form of expression. Have them do some of their paintings using a monochromatic palette others using color variations to express their emotions. Have them think about what colors and patterns convey the range of emotions they feel.

  • Step 3

    When their work is dry, have them present their art. Ask the class to discuss the emotions they felt during this musical painting project.

Standards

ARTS: Analyze ways that artistic components and cultural associations influence ideas, emotions, and actions. 

ARTS: Speculate about processes an artist uses to create a work of art. 

SEL: Self-Awareness: Understand one’s own emotions, thoughts, and values and how they influence behavior across contexts. 

Adaptations

Expand students' exploration of expressionism by introducing music by Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, or Alban Berg and showing them examples of expressionist architecture, such as the Sydney Opera House in Australia by Jørn Utzon, Het Schip in the Netherlands by Michel de Klerk, or Hallgrímskirkja in Iceland by Guðjón Samúelsson. Explore expressionist dance by choreographers such as Mary Wigman, Mimi Kagan, or Harald Kreutzberg.

Have students research the history of the expressionism art movement, a modernist art form that originated in northern Europe in the late 19th/early 20th century. Explain that this style seeks to depict not the reality of an object, but the subjective emotions that an object evokes in the viewer. Have them research some notable expressionists and their works, such as "The Scream" by Edvard Munch (1863-1944), "The Bride" by Marc Chagall (1887-1985), "Village Street in Winter" by Gabriele Münter (1877-1962), "The Blue Mountain" by Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), or any others. Have students discuss how the use of color, brush strokes, textures, lines, and other features can evoke different emotions.