Art

About this course

First grade art moves past coloring pages into real technique. The drawing unit works through the kinds of lines, the shapes hiding inside every object, light versus firm pencil pressure, stick figures that show feeling, animals built from ovals and circles, houses, a landscape with a horizon line, and the difference between drawing from observation and drawing from imagination. Color theory covers primaries, the three secondaries and how they are mixed, warm and cool colors, tints made with white, shades made with black, and the seven rainbow colors in order. Painting takes up brush handling, rinsing to keep colors clean, wet-on-wet watercolor, blending a sunset, finger and sponge painting, and printing with hands, leaves, and cut vegetables. The sculpture unit does playdough figures, origami, cardboard construction, paper weaving, pinch pots, papier-mache over a balloon, and a hanging mobile. Mixed media adds collage, handmade greeting cards, pressed flowers, yarn art, a homemade book, paper bag puppets, and torn-paper mosaic.

There is also a short art history unit, which is unusual at this age and worth knowing about. It covers cave paintings at Lascaux, Egyptian art and hieroglyphics, medieval monks and illuminated manuscripts, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and a survey of Chinese, African, Native American, and Japanese traditions, closing with God as the first Artist in Genesis 1. No pictures are built into the lessons, so when a lesson asks your student to look at the Sistine Chapel or a cave painting, you and your family will want a book or a screen handy to look it up together.

The course is 72 lessons in eight units, about 25 minutes each, and it is not a daily subject. The last two units are a straight repeat of the drawing and color units, so there are 54 different lessons with a built-in second pass through the fundamentals. A lesson is a short prayer, a paragraph or two of reading, roughly twelve minutes of actually making the project, and a review, then a ten-question quiz that grades itself. The quiz asks about the project steps as well as the concept, so the making is not optional. Every lesson carries Exodus 35:35. On supplies: the lesson list says crayons, paper, safety scissors, and a glue stick, but the projects need more than that. Over the year plan on watercolor or tempera paint and a couple of brushes, a sponge, playdough or clay, origami or plain square paper, yarn, cardboard boxes and tubes, tape, craft sticks, old magazines and fabric scraps, paper lunch bags, a balloon and flour paste, and leaves or flowers from outdoors. Most of it is household or dollar-store material, but it is worth gathering ahead of a unit rather than the morning of.

What the course covers

• Line, shape, and pencil pressure
• Drawing people, animals, houses, and landscapes
• Observation drawing and imagination drawing
• Primary and secondary colors, warm and cool
• Tints, shades, and the rainbow order
• Brushwork, watercolor wet-on-wet, and blending
• Finger painting, sponge painting, and printmaking
• Playdough sculpture, origami, weaving, pinch pots, and papier-mache
• Cave art, Egypt, illuminated manuscripts, da Vinci, and Michelangelo
• Collage, mosaic, puppets, bookmaking, and nature art

What your student will be able to do

• Draw a recognizable person, animal, house, or landscape from basic shapes
• Mix secondary colors and lighten or darken a color with white or black
• Load, rinse, and control a paintbrush and blend two wet colors
• Build a simple three-dimensional piece from clay, paper, or cardboard
• Name several artists and periods and say what made their work distinctive
• Plan and finish a multi-step craft project from start to display

Scope and sequence

All 8 units of Art for Grade 1, in the order they are taught.

Every lesson, by title

All 72 lesson titles are listed here — nothing is withheld until you download. Open a unit to read its contents.

One whole lesson, exactly as it comes

This is a real lesson taken from the middle of the course — the teaching text, the practice, the homework, and the first three quiz questions with their answers. It is not a marketing excerpt.

What you will need

Drawn from the materials named across all 72 lessons of this course. Most families already own most of it.