3rd Grade Exploration Project

I forgot to blog this project at the begining of the semester.  This was actually the first 3rd grade project we did.  Students drew out their name and then colored in shapes with a color family.  They then cut apart their work and created a new composition.  This project had a few key goals one was to talk about color families, one was to think about compostions and layout of a final piece and the most important part of this project was learning that in art it's ok to break the rules.  In this project every time I gave an instuction I asked students to break the rule, for example when we colored I asked them to use 1 color family, so they were forced to use more then one or to use one family plus a color, when they cut I asked for 10 equal rectangular pieces, so some cut more pieces or did not cut only rectangles.  We talked as a class about the fact that in math 1+1 is always 2 but that in art the rules can be bent and broken and that can make the art stronger as long as it is done with purpose and meaning.   Overall they were just a fun way to start the year.