Ho Ho Ho Fashion!

A really playful way to teach horizontal/ vertical lines and primary colors is this lesson I recently did with my 1st graders. I showed the students a brief slide show on the paintings of Mondrian as well as a website that showed examples of his paintings that influenced fashion- dresses, ties, jackets, and shirts. So then I told them that we were going to design a new hat for Santa using Mondrian as our influence.

The students used a tracer to create the cut shape of a santa hat. Following cutting out their hat, the students had to create their design using vertical lines, horizontal lines, and primary colors. Each student used a white, a blue, and a yellow oil pastel to create the colors, as well as a black sharpie and a ruler to create the pattern of lines. 

The kiddos really love doing this because it has to do the Santa! You could have students of other levels create other articles of clothing in the form of fashion designs. A friend of mine also suggested that you could create Santa hats inspired by all a variety of different artists paintings.