Submitted by Geoff Thompson, a teacher from Whitby, Ontario, Canada.
Objectives:
To help students identify the similarities between music and art.
What You Need:
Large paper (14 x 20)
CD PLAYER
Various music accompaniments (i.e. classical, pop, country, rock)
Pencils
Pencil crayons
What You Do:
This is an excellent abstract shape, and color balancing exercise.
Students place the tip of their pencil in the middle of the paper and close their eyes.
With their eyes closed, the teacher begins playing a song on the CD player.
Students then begin moving their pencils in movements on the page that mimic the instruments or rhythms of the music pieces. (i.e. a drum solo might be penciled as a jagged heart rate monitor-like line)
The teacher alters the music from style to style while the students keep their eyes shut.
Eventually (when most of the page is covered in lines) the students are told to open their eyes and to trace (darkly) all the penciled lines with a black pencil crayon.
Finally, students are instructed to color each individual shape (that has been created by the penciled lines) in such a way that none of the same colors are touching each other.
NOTE: Usually students enjoy this activity VERY much. They enjoy trying the music-eyes-closed-thing a lot. I suggest doing this a couple of practice times before drawing the final piece.
KinderArt® Lesson/Activity