Third Grade Painting Course

In third grade, watercolor painting takes a step toward clearer forms, more advanced compositions, animal forms, and more use of the human form and human faces.  We continue the color process from earlier grades in order to establish color "washes" for our background and to set up the basic composition.  From there we create the actual compositions.  Therefore, control of the medium becomes even more important in third grade.  It is a balance of managing the colors and the forms along with the wetness-to-dryness of the paper.  It is an ongoing practice.

This course provides thirty-six start-to-finish paintings, one for each week of a 36-week school year.  These are designed to correlate to the lesson blocks being taught during the third grade year.  Most come from the stories presented in the storytelling course, as listed in the included document "Third Grade Blocks, Stories, and Paintings".  Some are created for the Food, Clothing, and Shelter Blocks.  There are also four additional paintings to correspond to the seasons.  These Bonus Paintings could be substituted instead of that painting for that week or used in addition to the painting for the week.

There are also lessons for the teacher to understand how to review paintings.  There are a few techniques we can employ in looking back at what we (teachers and students) have created together.  Often, the student needs help learning ways to review their work that will be aimed at positivity, creativity, and contentment with our best efforts.  Particularly with the arts, it can be easy for the child to begin a habit of self-criticism and negativity unless we actively engage them in creating a more positive and supportive soul habit.

• How to work with the materials: wet paper, watercolors, brush, painting rag/sponge

• How to guide paintings from beginning to end by either using the 36 lessons provided in this course, or by taking those lessons as examples and creating your own 

• How support the creative process so that children feel joyful and at ease rather than stressed and/or disappointed

• How to review artwork in ways that support openness and imagination rather than judgment and critique, thus fostering a child's sense of self and accomplishment in a positive way. 

• To understand that the way we teach any subject, even watercolor painting, can support the third grader in ways far beyond the activity of painting, because you will begin to see this process on a deeper level