Exercise in Creative Thinking - Art Monday

I recently came across a video on youtube about a group of 3rd graders who where presented with the task of finishing a picture.

Each picture started with a single triangle and the students were told if they finished the picture they would receive 1 point.  The results were rather boring.

The same group of students were then asked to finish the painting and with this new task they let their imaginations take a shape of their own.

I was curious how my little 5 year olds would respond with the same task.

and thus...

During our school time I asked them to finish the picture and receive 1 point.

Estee's house

Coppelia's clown head

During Mama school Art day

Estee's beach front property

Upset Coppelia

Coppelia was very upset I ruined her blank canvas with a triangle but eventually she decided to work around it.

Later she asked if she could try the project again.

I'm pretty sure she created either her version of Sodom and Gomorrah or Armageddon.  When asked about the picture she said the triangle was the angels head and the angel was fighting all the bad guys.  She made her own brush out of long pieces of grass and wiped them around on the page and said it was the blood.

aaaaa.... nice....

Project 2

I had the girls sit and listen to Flight of the Bumblebee written by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Half way through the song I asked them what this music sounded like and they said it sounded like someone was running.  I then told them the song was called "Flight of the Bumblebee" and if they listened closely to the low sounds on the Violin it sounded like a bee when it starts hovering. 

So while the song played on repeat I had them paint their own "Flight of the Bumblebee" picture.

Estee - the purple is the bee's path and the yellow is the bee

Coppelia's

When we finished our lesson we read The Magical Garden of Claude Monet

This book is illustrated with reproductions of Monet's work including a fold-out panorama of his water lily pond. The story tells of a little girl named Julie who lives in Paris and longs of walking in a beautiful country garden.  When her mother's takes her to the country she discovers a garden and meets who she thinks is the gardener but in reality he is the gardens owner Claude Monet.  The story is based on a real little girl named Julie who's mother was friends with Monet.