Second Graders have the North American Theme, and so I decided to tie this in with Frank Lloyd Wright, his geometric style and his stained glass. We talked about geometric shapes vs. organic shapes, Balance, and Space.
I gave the kiddos a black piece of construction paper, about 6 x 9. I told them to write their names on the back and then put their pencils away, because we were gonna draw with GLUE. I found that it worked better to have them draw directly onto the paper with the glue, rather than try to make a design with the pencils first. When they drew with the pencils, they made everything too small, and then trying to go over it with the glue was frustrating. So, they made simple, geometric shapes, and made sure to leave some open space so they could "see" out of the window.
The following class I gave them chalk pastels to color in the spaces around the glue shapes. I'd planned on giving them paintbrushes with tissue wrapped around the wrong end for blending, since I didn't have any Q-tips at the time. One kid started using the actual brushy end of the brush to blend the colors, and it worked GREAT! As long as they washed the brushes out afterwards, I let them use the paintbrushes for blending. One less thing to buy!
Here's how they turned out. There wasn't a single one that didn't look gorgeous!
