kandinsky...

Did you know how difficult it can be to tear paper!? Fifth grade students enjoy the end creation of these Kandinsky inspired concentric circles, but some of them don't like the tearing part.



It's a fun project in that we only use paper and glue - no scissors! I have added some glitter glue as a final step to add lines or dots or to trace around some of the rings in the past, as a choice, which really makes this project colorful.

We use an 8x12" white paper as the base to glue the colored rings to. I chop up a variety of colors into 4x4.5" rectangles and show the children how they will eventually fit onto the white paper. They each choose six different colors, folding each one in half the same way.

Using our thumb and pointer finger as pinchers, they begin tearing a letter "c" beginning on the fold and ending on the fold, otherwise they will end up with two separate pieces instead of a ring. Some of the children will use a pencil to draw the lines that they need to tear on so it's easier to see where they need to go. Each color should have at least three rings torn out of it, saving the little inside piece as well. Once all the colors are torn up, they begin to layer the colors on top of each other creating some sort of composition.

The last step is to glue all the piece down to the white paper. When the project is dry, I instruct the children to go back and look for any pieces of paper that may need to be glued down more or better so that these paper rings are flat. This project really pops out when mounted onto black paper, or mounted onto white, then black paper. Don't forget the glitter glue!! (I believe this project is from Blick.)