Students will learn about the American born artist Jackson Pollock, who was famous for his "action painting." Jackson Pollock described his paintings as "energy and motion made visible." Students will have the opportunity to view some of his work and discover how it feels to drip and splatter paint across the virtual canvas as they make their own action paintings on the SMARTboard. 

• Expose students to artists so they can discuss works of art and the techniques used to produce art.
• Make works of art that explore a variety of mediums so they can exercise their imaginations
• Express and communicate their own ideas in works of art
• Learn how to use a variety of visual arts materials, techniques and processes.
• Reflect upon, interpret and evaluate works of art
• Understand artistic communication
• Work with virtual art and gain knowledge of media and compositional elements

Directions

• Arrange the children so that they can sit where they see the screen.
• Show the class a picture of one of Pollock's art pieces and ask them if they recognize the piece or the artist.
• Show the slideshow as you tell them about Pollock's life and work.
• Show the video segments from the movie, Jackson Pollock.
• Go to the interactive website, explain the activity to the students and model it for them.
• Allow the children come up to the smart board and/or the computer to create their own art.
• Print it out and/or save the artwork so that you can send/email it to their parents.

Supporting All Learners

The activity part of this lesson is completely open-ended and therefore accommodates all students. Since the whole activity is tactile, it is great for students with sensory issues or weaker fine motor skills. The actual lesson includes audio and many visuals that help the students get a feel for the artist's style and way of working.

Lesson Extensions

1. The children create their own artwork in Pollock's style. We put the canvas on the floor of our classroom and they drip and splatter paint with brushes, pieces of wood, spoons, and whisks.
2. Visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Home Connection

Send a letter home explaining what artist is being studied and encourage the families to visit the interactive art website which the students used in class to create their pieces. This will allow them to create the pieces at home. Also, if any of your local museums features a piece of his artwork, send them to the museum to view the piece.

BOOKLIST
Due to Jackson Pollock's popularity, there are many books that can be used to help strengthen any lesson that you may want to teach about him and his techniques. 

1. Action Jackson (Robert F. Sibert Honor Books) by Jan Greenberg, Sandra Jordan, and Robert Andrew Parker. This book is a great follow up or introduction to your lesson.
2. Jackson Pollock (Getting to know the World's Greatest Artists) by Mike Venezia
3. Olivia By Ian Falconer.Kindergarten children get to know and love Olivia and her perspective on the world.
4. You can't take a balloon into the Metropolitan Museum By Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman and Robin Glasser. This is a great book to read right before you go to visit a museum and you want to talk about proper behavior. It is a fun read for all.
5. Art is.... By Bob Raczka. This book is wonderful for you to use as you jumpstart your artist study curriculum for the year.