Mill Valley School District Art Department

Painting Curriculum Map

Ceramics/Sculpture

Crafts/Photography
Mixed Media/Collage

Art Department Philosophy

Statement

Through a robust
studio-based art curriculum,
students in Mill Valley
School District have
opportunities to explore a
variety of art media at every
grade level.

Painting
Drawing

Studio Habits of Mind

Printmaking

Art Department Philosophy Statement

Mill Valley School District provides a robust studio-based art curriculum where students learn
to express personal ideas and feelings using their imagination, or observation. Students learn
to value originality, artistic freedom, and the art process.
The program places artistic expression at the center. Aesthetic values, art criticism, and art
history inspire and grow out of students' creative experiences. Students have opportunities to
make choices and cope with ambiguity and uncertainty as they exercise judgment in
solving artistic problems. Through the making of their own art, students invent, experiment,
discover, investigate, take risks, work through mistakes, and reflect. Students explore

different sources for inspiration: imagination, intuition, memory, and observation. They learn
from each other and they learn to value their creative process and product.
Studio Habits of Mind

Painting Overview

Key Vocabulary

Guiding Questions

Big Ideas

Painting
Resources
Related Museum Exhibits,
Websites, Books, Images,
Videos, Music

Understandings
By Grade Level

Connections
Artists Studied, Childrens
Literature, Cultural,
Historical, Cross-Cultural

Project Examples

Exemplar Projects
By Grade Level

Painting Vocabulary
Abstract, acrylic, analogous colors, blend, brushes, canvas, color mixing, colors, complementary
colors, hues, intensities, intermediate colors, mood, neutral, primary colors, realistic, secondary
colors, splatter, stippling, symbolism, tempera, theme, tints and shades, value, warm and cool
colors, washes, watercolor, watercolor paper, wet-on-dry, wet-on-wet

Painting Guiding Questions

How does an artist make a painting?

What materials and tools can be used to create a painting?
What techniques do artists use to create a painting?
How and where do artists get ideas to make a painting?
What are the unique qualities of a painting?

Painting Big Ideas

Painting is a very expressive medium. It allows an artist many ways to tell a visual story
about people, places, things, and/or feelings through a variety of colors applied in many
different ways.
Painting is a process by which a surface is colored by a pigment.
Painting is traditionally applied with a brush, but may be applied with other tools such
as fingers, rags, sponges, and pallet knives.
Paint can be applied with brushes, knives, or other tools on a variety of surfaces.
There are a variety of kinds of paints.

Painting Resources
Go to a museum
http://moma.org/explore/collection/painting
http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection.html
www.artic.edu
www.gallery.ca
www.mban.qu.ca/en
www.mexicanmuseum.org
www.asianart.org
www.metmuseum.org
www.lacma.org

Painting Connections

Emma Amos
Robin Wethe Altman
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Anne Berenge
Chuck Close
Rosa Rolanda Covarrubrias
Richard Diebenkorn
Helen Frankenthaler
Ted Harrison
David Hockney
Friedensreich Hundertwasser
Annie Pitjara Hunter
Frida Kahlo
Noel Kapanda
Paul Klee
Lee Krasner
Jacob Lawrence
Franz Marc
Henri Matisse

Claude Monet
Gabrielle Munter
Julianne Turner Nungarrayi
Daphne Odjig
Georgia OKeeffe
Ole Kolii Paul
Horace Pippin
Diego Rivera
Henri Rousseau
Sandra Rowe
Elly Simmons
Nancy Spero
Henry Ossawa Tanner
Michael Neson Tjakamarra
Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri
Eric Tournaire
Vincent Van Gogh
Pablita Velarde
Laura Wheeler Waring

Childrens Books:
13 Painters Children Should Know by Florian Heine
A Brush Full of Color by Ted Harrison
Chuck Close Face Book by Chuck Close
Frida Kahlo: The Artist Who Painted Herself by Margaret Frith
Henry Ossawa Tanner: His Boyhood Dream Come True by Faith Ringgold
Hundertwasser for Kids: Harvesting Dreams by Barbara Stieff
Inspirations: Stories About Women Artists: Georgia OKeeffe, Frida Kahlo, Alice Neel, Faith
Just Like Me by Tomie Arai & Enrique Chagoya
Laurence Anholts books about artists
Life Doesnt Frighten Me by Maya Angelou
Mike Venezias books about artists
Faith Ringgolds books
Vincent Van Gogh: Sunflowers and Swirly Stars by Joan Holub

Painting Project Examples

Transitional Kindergarten: Tempera Paint Explorations
Kindergarten: Tempera Paintings of Animals
First grade: Floral Still Life with Tempera
Second grade: Painting and Design: Symmetry
Third grade: Monochromatic Paintings
Fourth grade: Tempera Paintings using Complementary Colors
Fifth grade: Landscape Painting: Pathways
Sixth grade: Wayne Thiebaud Dessert Paintings using Acrylics
Seventh grade: Hard-Edge Paintings
Eighth grade: Impression Strip Paintings

Painting Understandings By Grade Level

Transitional Kindergarten Students

Experiment with using paint

Use colors to paint familiar objects
Use a variety of painting tools
Engage in self-directed play with tempera paint
Engage in self-directed creative making with paint
Share and talk about their paintings

Kindergarten Students

Build upon prior knowledge and skills

Experiment with mixing colors
Use colors to make lines and patterns
Paint pictures expressing ideas about family, feelings, and neighborhood
Experiment with paint and build skills in various media and approaches to painting
Engage in exploration and imaginative play with different painting materials
Engage collaboratively in creative art making through painting
Explain the process of painting while creating

First Grade Students

Build upon prior skills and knowledge

Use tempera, watercolor and mixed media (e.g. crayon resist)
Use positive and negative space in making a painting
Experiment with mixing white with colors to make tints
Mix secondary colors from primary colors and describe the process
Paint a still life using secondary colors
Explore uses of materials and tools to create a painting
Engage collaboratively in exploration and imaginative play with different painting materials
Use observation and investigation in preparation for making a painting
Use art vocabulary to describe choices while painting

Second Grade Students

Build upon prior knowledge and skills

Combine tempera and watercolors with drawing materials (e.g. crayon, oil pastels, felt pens)
Experiment with mixing black to various colors to see how they make shades
Demonstrate beginning skill in use of art media such as watercolors and tempera paint
Create a painting using warm or cool colors expressively
Experiment with various materials and tools to explore personal interests in a painting
Brainstorm collaboratively multiple approaches to painting
Make a painting with various materials and tools to explore personal interests, questions, and
curiosity
Discuss and reflect with peers about choices made in creating a painting

Third Grade Students

Build upon prior knowledge and skills

Use a variety of materials, individually and/or in groups (e.g. murals)
Mix and apply tempera paint to create tints, shades, and neutral colors
Paint a landscape, seascape or cityscape that show the illusion of space
Create a painting based on the observation of objects and scenes in daily life, emphasizing
value changes
Create a personally satisfying painting using a variety of artistic processes and materials
Elaborate on an imaginative idea in making a painting
Apply knowledge of available resources, tools, and technologies to investigate personal ideas
through the painting process
Elaborate visual information by adding details in a painting to enhance emerging meanings

Fourth Grade Students

Build upon prior knowledge and skills

Use a variety of materials, including opaque watercolors, on alternative surfaces (e.g.
cardboard)
Use complementary colors in an original composition to show contrast and emphasis
Explore and invent painting techniques and approaches
Brainstorm multiple approaches to address a creative painting problem
Set goals collaboratively and create paintings that are meaningful and hav purpose to the
maker
Revise a painting in progress on the basis of insights gained through peer discussion

Fifth Grade Students

Build upon prior knowledge and skills

Combine a variety of media with painting
Create an expressive abstract composition based on real objects
Use perspective in an original work of art to create a real or imaginary scene
Experiment and develop skills in multiple art-making techniques and approaches in painting
through practice
Combine ideas to generate an innovative idea for a painting
Identify and demonstrate diverse methods of artistic investigation to choose an approach for
beginning a painting

Create artist statements using art vocabulary to describe personal choices in making a
painting

Sixth Grade Students

Build upon prior knowledge and skills

Further explore tools for painting and experimentation of paint application
Refine use of tempera, watercolor, and acrylic
Demonstrate openness in trying new ideas, materials, methods, and approaches in making
paintings
Combine concepts collaboratively to generate innovative ideas for creating paintings
Formulate an artistic investigation of personally relevant content or creating a painting
Reflect on whether personal paintings convey the intended meaning and revise accordingly

Seventh Grade Students

Build upon prior knowledge and skills

Use alternative surfaces
Combine materials with tempera and watercolor (e.g. collage, photography, sculpture)
Experiment with color mixing
Develop skill in mixing and color relationships using paint
Demonstrate persistence in developing painting skills with various materials, methods, and
approaches in creating works
Apply methods to overcome creative blocks in making a painting
Develop criteria to guide making a painting to meet an identified goal
Reflect on and explain important information about your painting in an artist statement or
another format

Eighth Grade Students

Build upon prior knowledge and skills

Refine skills using a variety of materials
Explore a wide variety of personally meaningful subject matter
Demonstrate willingness to experiment, innovate, and take risks to pursue ideas, forms, and
meanings that emerge in the process of painting
Document early stages of the creative process visually and/or verbally in creating a painting
Apply relevant criteria to examine, reflect on, and plan revisions for a painting

Transitional Kindergarten
Tempera Paint Explorations

Kindergarten
Tempera Paintings of Animals

Third Grade
Monochromatic Paintings

Second Grade
Painting and Design: Symmetry

Fourth Grade
Tempera Paintings using
Complementary Colors

Sixth Grade
Wayne Thiebaud Dessert
Paintings

First Grade
Floral Still Life with Tempera

Exemplar
Painting Projects
By
Grade Level

Seventh Grade
Hard-Edge Paintings

Fifth Grade
Landscape Painting: Pathways

Eighth Grade
Impression Strip Paintings

Transitional Kindergarten Project

Tempera Paint Explorations
Goals/Key Understandings
- Create new colors of paint in
different ways
- Use different tools to make a
painting

Motivating Questions
Visual Arts Standards
What colors can you name? What
colors can make other colors?
How can I use different tools to
paint?

2.3 Experiment with colors

through the use of paints

Key Vocabulary
Studio Habits of Mind

black, blue, brush, dabbler,

green, magenta, orange, red,
yellow, white

Connections
White Rabbits Colors by Alan
Baker; Mouse Paint by Ellen
Stoll Walsh

Express
Develop Craft

Resources
Fingerpaint outdoors with your
child using washable paints.

Assessment
- Teacher conversation with
student: What colors did you
use in your painting? Tell me
how you made new colors.

Kindergarten Project
Tempera Paintings of Animals
Goals/Key Understandings
- Identify colors by name
- Recognize particular elements
of painting
- Experiment with paint and
brush
- Collaborate with others to
make new colors

Motivating Questions

Visual Arts Standards

What kinds of shapes and lines

does an artist use to create an
animal in a painting? How does
an artist use tempera paint to
create an animal?

2.4 Paint pictures expressing

ideas
2.5 Use lines in paintings
2.6 Use geometric shapes/forms
in a work of art

Key Vocabulary
geometric shapes, organic
shapes, primary colors (red,
yellow, blue), secondary colors
(orange, green, purple)

Studio Habits of Mind

Develop Craft
Engage and Persist
Stretch and Explore

Assessment
Connections
The Rooster? by Pablo Picasso;
My Favorite the Rooster by
Sandra Perez & Pablo Picasso

Resources
Childrens Book About Chickens
by Lily Liu; Chicks & Chickens
by Gail Gibbons

- Informal Conversations: What

primary and secondary colors
can you name in your painting?
What brush techniques did you
use? How did you make lines
and shapes to create an animal
figure?

First Grade Project

Floral Still Life with Tempera
Visual Arts Standards
Goals/Key Understandings
- Create a floral still life from
observation, memory, and/or
imagination
- Develop skill in making colors
and applying paint
- Reflect on their work

Motivating Questions
What is a floral still life? How
will you use observation,
memory, and imagination to
create your painting? What are
the secondary colors, and how
will you make them?

1.3 Identify the elements of art

2.2 Mix secondary colors from
primary colors and describe the
process
2.4 Plan and use variations in
line, shape/form, color, and
texture to communicate ideas
or feelings in works of art
2.6 Draw or paint a still life
using secondary colors

Key Vocabulary

Studio Habits of Mind

composition, floral, imagination,

memory, observation, palette,
secondary colors, still life,
tempera paint, texture

Develop Craft
Observe
Engage and Persist
Reflect

Assessment
Connections

Resources

Odilon Redon, Vincent Van

Gogh, Henri Fantin-Latour,
Ambrosius Bosschaert, Georgia
OKeefe
Ming Vases, Pewabic pottery,
Venetian glass vases, Heath
ceramics

Annual Bouquets to Art

DeYoung Museum exhibit in
April; Heath Ceramics Studio in
Sausalito; Asian Art Museum;
Little Blue and Little Yellow by
Leo Lionni; Sesame Street
video, Primary Colors

- Observation during students

process
- Reflective conversation with
student about the artwork
during the making of the work
and upon completion: Where
did you get your ideas for your
floral painting? What new
colors did you make, and how
did you make them?

Second Grade Project

Painting and Design: Symmetry
Goals/Key Understandings

Motivating Questions

Visual Arts Standards

- Identify symmetrical patterns

in nature and symmetrical
designs in art
- Use symmetry to create visual
balance in a painting

What is symmetry? How do

artists use symmetrical
designs? Where do we see
symmetry in art? Where do you
see symmetry around you?

2.5 Use symmetry to create

visual balance
2.2 Demonstrate beginning skill
in the use of art media tempera

Studio Habits of Mind

Key Vocabulary

Observe
Develop Craft
Understand Art World

asymmetry, balance, design,

symmetry

Connections
Ndebele: The Art of An African
Tribe by Margaret
Courtney-Clark; My Painted
House, My Friendly Chicken, and
Me by Maya Angelou &
Margaret Courtney-Clark;
Seeing Symmetry by Loreen
Leedy

Resources
World of Amish Quilts by
Rachel Pellman; Symmetry in
Chaos: A Search for Pattern in
Mathematics, Art and Nature
by Michael Field

Assessment
- Teach and student reflection:
What is symmetry? How did
you show symmetry in your
design?

Third Grade Project

Monochromatic Paintings
Visual Arts Standards
Goals/Key Understandings
- Make a variety of tints and
shades in collaboration with
another student
- Identify and create a
monochromatic painting

Motivating Questions
How do artists make tints and
shades? What is a
monochromatic painting, and
how do artists make them?

Vocabulary

Studio Habits of Mind

monochromatic, shades, tints

Engage and Persist

Connections
Alan Ebnother, Sally Hazelet
Drummond, Anne Truitt,
Pablo Picassos blue period,
Pablo Picasso: Breaking all the
Rules by True Kelley

2.2 Mix and apply tempera

paints to create tints, shades,
and neutral colors
1.2 Describe how artists use
tints and shades in painting
4.1 Compare and contrast
selected works of art and
describe them using
appropriate vocabulary

Assessment
Resources
An Eye for Color: The Story of
Josef Albers by Natasha Wing

- Student self-assessment: How

did we create a monochromatic
painting using six different tints
and shades?

Fourth Grade Project

Tempera Paintings using Complementary Colors
Motivating Questions
Goals/Key Understandings
- Mix and use complementary
colors in a painting to
communicate a mood
- Create neutral hues by mixing
complementary colors with
each other
- Create a composition to show
contrast and emphasis

What are complementary

colors, and how do artists use
them in a painting? How many
different colors can you create
by mixing just one pair of
complementary colors and
white and black in varying
combinations? How do artists
show contrast and emphasis in
a work of art?

Key Vocabulary

Visual Arts Standards

1.3 Identify pairs of
complementary colors
(yellow/violet, red/green,
orange/blue) and discuss how
artists use them to
communicate an idea or mood
2.8 Use complementary colors
in an original composition to
show contrast and emphasis

Studio Habits of Mind

color wheel, complementary

colors, composition, contrast,
emphasis, neutral hue, shade,
tint, value

Envision
Reflect
Stretch and Explore

Assessment
Resources
Connections
Darlene Keeffe, Andy Warhol,
Ellsworth Kelly, Vincent Van
Gogh, Theresa Paden

- Look for pairs of

complimentary colors while
walking in your neighborhood
- Visit any museum and look for
pairs of complements within a
work

- Reflective conversation with

student: What complementary
colors did you use in your
painting? Describe your color
mixing process. How did you
create a neutral hue? How did
you show contrast and
emphasis?

Fifth Grade Project

Landscape Painting: Pathways
Goals/Key Understandings
- Students will create the
illusion of depth
- Students will create works that
convey an idea, feeling, or
personal meaning
- Students will learn what a
landscape is and how artists
create a landscape painting
- Students will learn what
one-point perspective is and
how to use that to create in a
painting

Motivating Questions
How do you show that things
are closer or farther away on a
two-dimensional surface?
What is a landscaping painting
and why do artists make them?
What is one-point perspective
and how do you create depth
in a painting?

Visual Arts Standards

2.6 Use perspective in an
original work of art
2.1 Use one-point perspective
to create the illusion of space
Students will create works that
convey an idea, feeling, or
personal meaning

Key Vocabulary
Studio Habits of Mind

converging lines, horizon line,

perspective, vanishing point

Express
Envision

Assessment
Connections
David Hockney (Pear Blossom
Highway); Vincent Van Gogh
(Wheatfield with Crows);
Wayne Thiebaud

Resources
https://www.amazon.com/exe
c/obidos/ASIN/6305347972/ha
rdoldolejarz-20

- Teacher reflection with

student: Did you accurately
convey 1-point perspective
using a horizon line and
vanishing line? Did you use a
pathway to guide the viewer's
eye across the space?

Sixth Grade Project

Wayne Thiebaud Dessert Paintings

Goals/Key Understandings
- Study the life and artwork of
Wayne Thiebaud
- Use a viewfinder to create a
detailed, up-close drawing of a
dessert from observation
- Mix tints and shades with
acrylic paints

Motivating Questions
What can you learn about the
life and artwork of painter
Wayne Thiebaud from our
study of him? How do artists
use a viewfinder as a
compositional tool? What is
the rule of thirds? What is the
technique for making tints
shades with paint?

Visual Arts Standards

2.1 Use various observational
drawing skills to depict a
variety of subject matter
4.4 Change, edit, or revise
works of art after a critique,
articulating reasons for changes

Key Vocabulary
Studio Habits of Mind
contour line, enlarging,
highlights, observation,
proportion, rule of thirds,
shades, shadows, tints, value,
viewfinder

Develop Craft
Observe
Understand Art World

Assessment
Resources
Connections
Wayne Thiebaud, Pop Art, CBS
Video, SPARK video, Scholastic
Magazine

Wayne Thiebaud - CBS Sunday

Morning short film (YouTube),
Wayne Thiebaud - KQED Spark
video:
Http://www.kqed.org/spark/ed
ucation

- In-Process student/teacher
assessment: How did you use the
viewfinder to create an up-close
composition? How did you use tints
and shades to help make the dessert
appear three-dimensional? What
qualities of your work make you feel
it is a success or failure? What
would you change?
- In-class critique; grading rubric

Seventh Grade Project

Hard-Edge Paintings
Goals/Key Understandings

Motivating Questions

- Build a painting composition

from background first to
finishing details later
- Use tape and acrylic paint to
develop a hard edge
composition
- Use a variety of techniques to
create an illusion of depth

What is a hard-edge painting

and how do artists make them?
What techniques are used?
Why was this style of painting
developed and is still used
today? What are the different
ways artists show depth on a
two-dimensional surface?

Visual Arts Standards

Key Vocabulary

Studio Habits of Mind

color field painting, color value,

composition, Geometric
Abstraction, gradation,
hard-edge painting, mask, Op
Art, style

Develop Craft
Envision
Stretch and Explore
Understand Art World

Assessment

Connections
Piet Mondrian, Victor Vaserely,
Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin,
Joseph Albers, Kenneth Noland,
Kazimir Malevich, Suzy Kellems
Dominik, Frank Stella,
Geometric Abstraction

2.2 Use different forms of

perspective to show the illusion
of depth on a two-dimensional
surface
2.4 Develop skill in mixing
paints and showing color
relationships

Resources
sfmoma.org (videos,
resources), SFMOMA

- In-class student-teacher
reflective discussions: How did
you create a hard-edge
painting? How did you create
an illusion of depth?
- In-class critique; grading
rubric

Eighth Grade Project

Impression Strip Paintings
Goals/Key Understandings
- Use advanced color mixing
techniques to match the colors
of a section of an artists
painting
- Create an impressionist
painting that incorporates the
elements, qualities, and style of
impressionism

Motivating Questions
How can I incorporate and/or
camouflage a piece of an
impressionist painting into my
work, and still have my own
point of view?

Key Vocabulary

Visual Arts Standards

2.1 Demonstrate an increased
knowledge of technical skills in
using more complex
two-dimensional art media and
processes

Studio Habits of Mind

complementary colors,
Impressionism

Develop Craft
Engage and Persist
Envision

Resources

Assessment

www.nationalgallery.org.uk/
The National Gallery, London
www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en
Van Gogh Museum,
Amsterdam
www.claudmonetgallery.org

- In-process student/teacher
discussions: How did you use the
impressionism strip in a creative and
innovative way? How did you match
the colors of the strip exactly? How
did you manage your time?
- In-class critique; grading rubric

Connections
Marie Bracquemond, Mary
Cassatt, Eva Gonzales, Claude
Monet, Berthe Morisot, Vincent
Van Gogh, Impressionism