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SEVEN ART IDEAS · MANY WAYS TO PLAY
Little words.
New ways to see.
Line · Shape · Color · Form · Texture · Space · Value
The doing and the noticing
Standards describe what children do as artists: explore, create, make choices, respond, and share. The Elements of Art give us visual ideas and vocabulary to explore as we do those things.
We revisit these ideas in different projects. Each lesson highlights one or two connections; children do not need to learn all seven at once.
Wonder Words stay with each adventure. “Resist,” for example, names what our materials do, while “space” helps us notice the unpainted areas left behind.
Line
A mark that travels. It can bend, zigzag, curve, or go straight.
Let’s wonder: Make a line in the air. Where could it go?
Revisit in Adventure 04, Adventure 13, Adventure 19.
Shape
A flat area with an outline, like a circle—or a shape you invent.
Let’s wonder: Turn a paper shape. What could it become?
Revisit in Adventure 03, Adventure 05, Adventure 16, Adventure 17.
Color
The colors we notice and choose, such as blue, yellow, or green.
Let’s wonder: Which colors would you like to put together?
Revisit in Adventure 02, Adventure 06, Adventure 10, Adventure 11, Adventure 20.
Form
A three-dimensional object with height, width, and depth.
Let’s wonder: Turn your clay creature. What is on the other side?
Revisit in Adventure 08, Adventure 14.
Texture
How a surface feels, or looks as if it might feel.
Let’s wonder: What could this bumpy-looking mark feel like in real life?
Revisit in Adventure 01, Adventure 09, Adventure 12, Adventure 18.
Space
The room around, between, inside, and behind things.
Let’s wonder: What do you notice in the parts you left unpainted?
Revisit in Adventure 07, Adventure 11, Adventure 13, Adventure 16, Adventure 20.
Value
How light or dark a color looks.
Let’s wonder: Can you make a lighter mark and a darker mark with the same crayon?
Revisit in Adventure 18.
Same idea. A new discovery.
A child might first notice space when tape is peeled, then choose spaces between a plane and its trail, and later leave room between abstract marks. The word returns in a different experience.
Let the child point, make a choice, use their home language, or show an idea in the artwork. Vocabulary supports making; it is not a quiz.
See the separate Elements of Art →Find this resource again: mrrichiecreates.com/resources/elements-of-art