Painting Exploration in Tempera Lesson Plan

Grades K-6

Aims: To explore tempera paint, brushes and marking-making and learn about color-mixing
           To create paintings that will be used as collage fodder later

Materials and tools:
Tempera paint of various colors...don't leave out magenta and turquoise if possible)
Brushes of various sizes
Water cans (I like coffee cans with the lids put on the bottom)
Paper towels
Heavy painting or drawing paper

Vocabulary:
color wheel
stroke
complimentary color
texture
bristle, etc.

Procedure:
Gather students around the demonstration table and show proper brush and paint use-- washing the brush between colors, not spattering, mixing thoughtfully, "putting your eyeballs on what you're doing," etc.

Explain the theme--it might be color exploration, using only two colors, using only three colors or expressing an idea such as imbalance, fear, or another emotion. You may want to play different kinds of music and let the students react to the sound with their brushes and colors.

Tell them "not to fall in love with their work," as these are experiments and will be used later for another art project.

Make your students responsible for  changing the water cans as necessary and clean up. If you train them early they will learn it forever!

Reflection:
Let students marvel as a group at the output. Once dry, put them away for a bit until you do part two, which is a collage.