tint and shade collage

This is yet another wonderful idea from www.thechocolatemuffintree.blogspot.com (sorry, Melissa! I don't know why my hyperlink isn't working in Blogger!), adapted for my Kindergarten and First Grade students! This weekend I was, er, shopping at a certain home improvement store and, um, "sampled" a few of their paint sample sheets. I am going to have to hit up another nameless large home improvement store sometime this week for a few (hundered) more!

First off, I cut all the sample sheets in half and put them in a basket on their tables. I had them lay them out in "favorites", primary colors, secondary colors, spectrum order, etc. We then discussed tint and shade. They were to then choose 4 sheets of color(s) they liked and arranged them in their personal space from lightest to darkest.

The trick was that they had to use EVERY SINGLE SCRAP from their four sheets. No one was to throw anything away! We talked about abstract art, also, as they were to NOT make a picture out of anything. We were focusing on color, not on a subject here.

This was really fun and I think I am going to do this next year, adaptable to Picasso faces or something of that sort with my older students! That means a few (twenty-ish) more trips to another unsuspecting home improvement store! Gheesh!!