1st Grade - Color Mixing Turkey Collage

This is one of those lessons that I really feel is a keeper. I'm the kind of art teacher who could never do all the same projects year after year, but there are some that I have cemented into my curriculum, and this is one of them.

This takes me two 50-minute sessions. In the first session, I start with a 12x18" piece of white sulfate paper, and have the students fold it into 8 long rectangles. With first grade, this can be quite an experience, but if I take it slow and I check them after each step, I usually only have one or two per class that don't fold it correctly the first time.

We then go through each rectangle and make a pattern of shapes with crayon. The first is blue, second is yellow, third is red, fourth is red/yellow, fifth is red/blue, sixth is yellow/blue, which leaves two blank. I then tell them to watercolor each rectangle with the colors they used in their patterns. If there are two colors in the pattern, they have to mix them, starting with the lightest color first. I love this step because it allows them to discover the secondary colors on their own to see which colors make what. I then let them paint the blank ones however they want, or they can use them to make a color they messed up on before.



During the second class period, we turn the watercolored paper into feathers and create a turkey collage. I happen to be at the Michigan Art Education Association Conference when it was time for my classes to do this part of the lesson, so I made visual posters to direct the students through each step.





I tested it out with a few classes before I left, and I loved how self-directed and independent my little first graders were. I did give them stencils for the body, head, and feathers, and then pre-cut the beak and feet paper into two-inch yellow squares. I then added the googly eyes as a fun way to finish them off.

I love me some googly eyes...



Let me also share with you that I followed up this lesson with my own version of Deep Space Sparkle's Color Mixing Fish. I thought it was a great way to tie up my turkey lesson because they were still mixing colors, but with a slightly different medium (tempera). Hopefully I'll have some of these results up soon!