Kindergarteners Get Into Line With the Right Art Lessons
Exercise new school skills with collaborative lessons focused on the concept of line.
By Alison Panik
For many new kindergarten students the instruction “Please get in line!” is new and unfamiliar. While forming lines is a part of everyday life for the rest of the population, in kindergarten forming and staying in lines while traveling about the school is a yearlong skill to improve on.
In art class, the word line takes on a different, yet related, meaning. Art teachers can help kindergarten students develop the new concept of line using a variety of art explorations. Connecting the art concept of line to the school skill of forming a line can be done very easily with some sidewalk chalk and plastic lids. Invite children to form a line on the playground and place a plastic lid between their feet. When they step away, connect the lids with sidewalk chalk. Observe and discuss this line. Experiment with forming different kinds of lines (curved, straight, zigzag). Build this bridge between school skill and art concept before engaging in the following recommended lesson plans:
Kindergarten Art Lessons:
A great introduction to line, this lesson would be ideal for collaboration between classroom teacher, physical education instructor, and art teacher. This lesson incorporates kinesthetic learning and shared reading and was created for a kindergarten classroom that includes students with special needs.
A Line is a Dot That Went for a Walk
This lesson relates well to the suggested introductory activity. Children can imagine that they are dots that went for a walk when they form lines to move from place to place in the school. Art, music, and classroom teachers can collaborate to provide both the music and art activities suggested. These lessons would work best in adult-monitored stations on one school day or offered over several lesson periods.
This lesson builds on the yarn drawings activity suggested in the lesson plan. It also includes recommended masterworks, an assessment rubric and questions for reflection.
Inspire students with masterworks then offer finger paint and paper for line explorations. This lesson offers a list of related children’s books as well as art images to download and print or display on a smart board or larger screen.
Elements and Principles in Art
Create an all-school work of line art! Other lessons in this series bridge from the concept of line to shape and on to other elements of art.