UNIT PLAN: COLOR AND MOOD

Audience: 3rd grade, public inner-city school, 26 students

Length: 3 Lessons total of 5-7 class periods.
The art curriculum in my elementary art classroom is driven by the
Elements and Principles of art within the context of real-world
experiences and the use of differentiated learning styles.

UNIT OUTCOMES 3rd grade students will explore the primary and
secondary colors and the impact that color can have on mood,
expression and storymaking as displayed in visual and musical art
forms.

UNIT OBJECTIVES
TLW create a monochromatic value scale.
TLW identify the three primary colors, the secondary colors, and sets of
analogous colors.
TLW classify warm and cool colors.
TLW sort tints and shades.
TLW understand that colors create different moods.
TLW observe artists that used color to create mood.
TLW create works of 2-D and 3-D art that reflect mood through use of
analogous colors.
TLW construct with paper using folding and quilling techniques.
TLW engage in sensory stimulation through audio, visual, literacy and
tactile application.
TLW recognize that artists, whether visual or musical, can express
feelings through their art.

Brief Overview:
Lesson One: Monchromatic: Color and Mood: Picassos Blue Period
Lesson Two: Analogous Colors: Boat in Storm 3-D paper sculpture
Lesson Three: Cool Colors: Oil Pastels: Vasilly Kandinsky

Vocabulary Terms: Primary, Secondary, Monochromatic, Analogous,

Warm and Cool, Tints and Shades, Picasso, Post-Impressionism, Vasilly
Kandinsky- Expressionism, Music Composers: Beethoven, Samuel
Barber, Gustav Holst Mars, The Planets

LESSON ONE: Monochromatic Color and Mood

Objectives:
TLW create a monochromatic value scale.
TLW identify the three primary colors, the secondary colors, and sets of
analogous colors.
TLW classify warm and cool colors.
TLW understand that colors create different moods.
TLW observe artists that used color to create a mood.

Anticipatory Set: The Sea

At door entry hang blue crepe paper.
Have ocean waves audio CD playing as students
enter in to a darkened room with spotlights.
At group area read to them the book, My Blue
Sailboat by Demarest, C. 1995

Have Ss use VTS to discuss, analyze, interpret and

judge Picassos Blue Period, Les Miserables au
bord de la mer
Elmo: Using a homemade sailboat in a small pan of
water drop in two primary colors and have a child
move primary colors together to make the
secondary. Do this with new pan for each of the
other colors.
Expressing mood through color choices.
Project Concept: Students will recall a time when
they felt sad. Students will create a simple 5 step
value scale using only white, black and blue. Students will create a wax
relief watercolor painting which is monochromatic using blue. While
students are working play Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings.

LESSON TWO: As a primary color moves from one into another they
make secondary colors.
3-D Sculpture in Analogous Colors
Objectives:
TLW identify sets of analogous colors.
TLW classify warm and cool colors.
TLW understand that colors create different moods.
TLW manipulate paper through folding, cutting and quilling
TLW construct a 3-D paper sculpture using the cool color set inspired
by the sea

Anticipatory Set: The Sea II

At door entry hang blue crepe paper.
Have CD playing of the Ocean Waves
Have students gather as group and share with them about the fantasy
story of Baxs The Garden of Fand . It is representing the sea through
music. It begins by evoking a small ship on a calm sea, thrown by a
wave onto Fand's magical island. The enchanted ocean dominates the

musical scene as the ravening waters finally engulf all, leaving the
people to ride the waves into the gathering dusk forever. Show work of
art based on torment of the raging sea.

Project Concept: Secondary colors, and

Warm and Cool color sets. Explain tints
and shades through a variety of
construction paper showing tints and
shades. Explain that Ss will be using cool
colors that are analogous to each other.
Demonstrate folding and quilling
techniques and the use of clear tape.
Process: Ss will use only tints and
shades of blues and greens with black
construction paper to create a boats
journey in the sea, expressing mood through color choices.

(Insert FULL LESSON PLAN and RUBRIC HERE)

LESSON THREE: Cool Color Composition Inspired by Music of Barbers
Adagio for Strings (If Teacher desires to teach warm analogous color
for this lesson they could use Gustav Holst Mars, The Planets instead.)
Objectives:
TLW classify warm and cool colors.
TLW understand that colors create different moods.
TLW create expressive works of 2-D art using cool colors.
TLW apply basic elements and principles of art in their composition
including Focal Point, Eye Movement, Balance and Space (Overlapping)
Anticipatory Set: Colored Transparencies
As Ss enter room have lights off and lightbox on with colored
transparencies displayed and overlapping one another.
Have CD of Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven
At group circle have overhead on with colored transparencies ready.

VTS Vasilly Kandiskys work, based on classical music he listened to.

Project Concept: Expressing mood through color choices and

shapes.
Primary colors then demonstrate how to make a secondary color by
overlapping transparencies. Invite a Ss to do the other secondary
colors for the class. Review warm and cool color sets using the
transparencies. Remind Ss of Picassos Blue Period.
Share how even great composers, people who write
songs can bring out sadness that they are
experiencing in their lives through music. Listen
together with eyes closed to some of Adagio for
strings. Ask them to visualize shapes they might
hear and trace with their hand in the air.
Have Ss work on floor or tables with black
construction paper as their background.
Play Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven and have Ss
draw with black oil pastel shapes and lines that they
Have Ss fill closed shapes with cool tones: blues, darker greens and
darker purple oil pastels: Use this time to share about shades and tints.
Allow for representational, abstract and non-objective designs.