Colorful Kindergarten Rainbows

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Last week, Kindergarten was finishing their rainbows, inspired by the art teacher, Hillary Green. 

 (You can find her on Instagram at  @Mrsgreenartbaby.)

Here's how we made our own! 

Materials:

oil pastels

tempera paint

dot a dot markers

scissors

glue

construction paper

Day 1: We made our rainbows, by drawing together one line at a time, using oil pastels. After they drew the rainbow, we talked about different types of patterns and lines, and they chose what they wanted to fill in each color with. We used oil pastels for the lines and patterns as well. 

After they add all their patterns and lines, they painted over them with tempera paint. 

Day 2: They made their clouds by folding their paper, drawing one large cloud, cutting them out, and then adding spots with the dot a dot markers. After they glued their clouds on, then they made their sun by tracing a circle, cutting out rectangle rays, and glued them on! 

Here's some awesome Kindergarten examples! 

2nd grade Georgia O'Keeffe Flowers

 

In this lesson, our young artists explored how to turn a simple flower into a bold, eye-catching masterpiece—just like Georgia O'Keeffe! Known for her large-scale flower paintings, O’Keeffe taught us that when we zoom in close, even ordinary things can become extraordinary.

🎨 What We Used

• Pencil
• Sharpie marker
• Oil pastels
• 9x6” paper

🌸 What We Did

We started by lightly sketching a large flower that fills the entire page. Instead of drawing a tiny flower in the middle, we stretched our petals all the way to the edges—just like O’Keeffe did. This helped make our artwork feel big and bold.

Next, we traced our lines with Sharpie to make the shapes stand out clearly. Then came the fun part—oil pastel blending!

🌈 Blending with Oil Pastels

Students used 3 different colors to fill in their petals. They were to choose a dark, medium, and a light color to blend together! 

For the background, they can choose whatever color they want, but they need to choose a darker and lighter version of that color. 

We talked about warm and cool colors, analogous colors, and complementary colors.

✨ What We Learned

• How to zoom in and fill the page with one subject
• How to blend colors using oil pastels
• How contrast (warm vs. cool colors) makes art more exciting
• How artists like Georgia O'Keeffe turn simple ideas into powerful images

💡 Teacher Tip

Encourage students not to rush the blending—this is where the magic happens. The more they layer and smooth colors together, the more vibrant their artwork becomes.