Week 1: Sep 10-14

This project works well for many grade levels and is a good opportunity to teach kids not only about color theory and different values, but about thinking outside the box.
The project began with students following some basic directions, such as "draw 4 lines that begin and end at the edge of the paper." Inevitably, in each class, someone asked for more specifics, but I refused to give them. Oftentimes, we teach such strict directions in school that students don't have the opportunity to think for themselves. My goal with this project was to encourage independent thinking with such vague directions that the students had to figure it out on their own.
After the lines were drawn and traced with black marker, I got down to the demonstration. We incorporated different shading techniques with analogous colors to fill each new shape that was created during the first part of the project.
In the end, each student had practiced thinking outside the box, practiced coloring and shading, and had a beautiful finished product.