Overview
Four-year-olds learn with their hands and their words at the same time. They tear before they cut, name before they compare, and love anything that opens and closes. Notan gives them all three. A big bite torn from the edge of a dark square swings out over that edge like a door and lies down as its own mirror, so every picture has a dark shape and a light twin: the piece, and the hole it left. The unit keeps the talk to three word pairs, dark and light, big and small, same and flipped, and says them again and again while children paint, tear, glue and play.
The Guidelines ask that most art experiences be free of a model to copy, with the focus on the process, so children watch how the door opens but never see a finished picture to match. They meet Henri Matisse, who in the last years of his life, from the 1940s until he died in 1954, cut shapes with scissors from paper his helpers had painted, and Chinese paper-cuts, often red, pasted on windows for the Spring Festival. The studio appears once, as a turn of about five minutes with an adult beside the child, so the door opens on the screen too. The word notan, Japanese for dark and light, came into American art teaching through Arthur Wesley Dow’s book Composition (1899); say it to the children if you like, as the name of a picture made of dark and light.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the unit, learners can do each of these. The middle column is what you will see or hear that shows it; the last column links to the standards it meets, quoted in full at the end of the page.
| # | By the end, learners can | What you will see | Standards |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paint a large sheet of paper with light tempera colors, using a wide brush or a sponge to cover most of the white. | Three-quarters or more of the 12 by 18 inch sheet is covered in yellow, sky blue or pink; the child makes brushing strokes, not only dabs, and says one word about how the paint feels or looks, such as wet, cold, smooth or sticky. | PK4.VIII.A.1 |
| 2 | Tear or snip one big shape from one edge of a dark paper square, starting and finishing on that edge. | The square has at least one bite about the size of the child’s palm or bigger that opens onto a single edge; the child holds the paper in one hand and tears with small pinches, or snips with blunt child scissors held thumb up. | PK4.VIII.A.1 |
| 3 | Swing the torn piece out over the edge it came from, like opening a door, and glue it down touching that edge. | The glued piece lies outside the square, turned over so it mirrors its hole, with the straight side that was part of the square’s edge lying along that same edge; the child shows the move with a hand swinging open or says “It opened like a door.” | PK4.VIII.A.1 |
| 4 | Point to shapes in their own picture and name them with the word pairs dark and light, big and small, same and flipped. | Asked “Where is your dark shape? Where is its light twin?”, the child points to the glued piece and then to the hole, and uses at least two of the three pairs correctly, such as “This one is big, that one is small” or “Same shape, flipped.” | PK4.VIII.A.2 |
| 5 | Choose which edge to tear from, and so which way the door opens, and tell an adult what the finished picture shows in a word or a short sentence. | The child picks the edge without being told which one, and when asked “Tell me about your picture” gives it a name or a story, such as “a bird flying” or “my house door”; the adult writes the child’s words on the back. | PK4.VIII.A.2 |
| 6 | Draw one big shape over the sheet in Studio Notan, with an adult beside them, and tap an arrow to flip it over an edge. | In a turn of about five minutes, the child drags one shape across the sheet, taps an arrow in the Flip direction chooser, and after the adult presses Undo taps a different arrow, then says where the piece went: up, down or to the side. | PK4.VIII.A.1 |
| 7 | Point to a dark shape and a light shape in a friend’s notan, a Chinese paper-cut or a cut-paper work by Henri Matisse, and say one thing they like. | During look and talk, the child points to one dark and one light shape in a friend’s picture or in Matisse’s Icarus and says one kind, specific sentence, such as “I like the big dark one” or “It looks like a bird.” | PK4.VIII.A.3 |
Before you teach
What learners should already know
- Holds a glue stick and presses a piece of paper down flat.
- Tears paper with a pinch of the fingers, or opens and closes child scissors with some help.
- Follows a two-step direction, such as “Tear a bite, then show me.”
- Knows the words big and small, even if dark and light are new.
Vocabulary
- dark
- A color with little light in it, like night, black paper or a shadow.
- light
- A color with lots of light in it, like day, white paper or the sun.
- big and small
- Words for size: a big shape takes up lots of the paper, a small one only a little.
- shape
- A flat area with an edge all the way around it, like a circle, a leaf or a torn bite.
- edge
- The line where the paper stops. A square has four edges.
- flip
- To turn a piece over, like opening a door or turning the page of a book.
- twin
- A shape that matches another one. The piece and the hole it left are twins, one of them flipped.
- same and flipped
- Same means the shapes match. Flipped means one faces the other way, like your two hands.
- notan
- A Japanese word for dark and light, and the name of a picture made of dark and light shapes.
Materials
- Black construction paper cut into 6-inch squares, two or three per child; it is dark on both sides, so a flipped piece stays dark
- White construction paper, 12 by 18 inches, one or two sheets per child, for the light ground, and a few 18 by 24 inch sheets for children using 9-inch squares
- Washable, nontoxic tempera with the AP seal of the Art and Creative Materials Institute (ACMI), in light colors: yellow, sky blue and pink
- Wide 1-inch brushes or chunky sponges, paper plates for the paint, water cups, and smocks or old shirts
- Glue sticks, one per child, and damp paper towels for sticky fingers
- Blunt-tip child scissors, with loop or spring-open scissors for children who need them
- A few black squares with a bite cut from one edge in advance and the pieces kept, for children not yet tearing
- A basket of dark and light things to sort: a black sock, a white cup, a dark stone, a pale feather
- Pictures, printed or projected, of Henri Matisse’s Icarus (1947), from his book Jazz, his The Snail (1953), and a red Chinese paper-cut
- A tablet or computer with Studio Notan open at /studio, its sheet made square by an adult beforehand
- Newspaper or a plastic cloth for the tables, and a flat place for paintings to dry
Read first in the guide
Hub activities to draw on
Unit plan
Session 1: Dark and light, two friends
- Sit in a circle with the basket of dark and light things, a sheet of black paper and a sheet of white paper. Hold up one thing at a time and ask, “Is it dark or light?” A child puts it on the black sheet or the white one. Say: “Dark and light are friends. Each one shows best next to the other.”
- Show Henri Matisse’s Icarus (1947). Say: “A man named Henri Matisse made this. When he was old, he often worked from his bed or his chair. His helpers painted big sheets of paper, and he cut shapes from them with scissors.” Ask a child to point to the dark shape, then to a light star.
- Paint the light ground. Cover the tables and put on smocks. Give each child a 12 by 18 inch sheet of white construction paper and a plate of yellow, sky blue or pink tempera. Invite them to cover the white with light color, using big arm movements. Show no finished example: this is their own painting.
- Talk while they paint: “You are making it light, like the sun.” Ask, “How does the paint feel?” and repeat the child’s words back.
- Write each name on the back, set the sheets flat to dry, and wash hands. Tell the children the light paper is waiting for a dark friend next time.
Session 2: Open the door
- Work with four to six children at a table, each with their dry light painting, and repeat the session with each small group. Hold up a black square: “This is dark. Watch the edge.” Tear a big bite from one edge with slow little pinches, saying, “I start at the edge. I finish at the edge.” Show only the tearing and the door, never a finished picture.
- Lay your square on a light sheet and put the bite back in its hole like a puzzle piece. Keeping it touching the edge, swing it out and lay it flat outside the square. Say: “It opens like a door. Same shape, flipped.” Point to the dark piece and the light hole: “The dark shape has a light twin.”
- Give each child a black square and ask, “Which edge will your door open from?” The child chooses an edge, then tears a big bite from it, or snips one with blunt child scissors held thumb up. A child who is not yet tearing takes a square with its bite already cut, so they can still open the door.
- Help each child rub glue on the back of the square and press it near the middle of their painting. Next the child rubs glue on the painting just outside the edge with the bite, puts the piece back in its hole, swings it over like a door onto the glue, and presses.
- A child who finishes early may tear a second, smaller bite from another edge and open that door too: one big, one small. Before the glue dries, ask each child, “Tell me about your picture,” and write their words on the back.
Session 3: A turn in the studio
- Before class, open Studio Notan and make the sheet square: in the Paper section of the Controls tab, set the width and the height to 5 inches. A new design starts with a black sheet on a white ground, which is just right. If an older design is there, choose Reset, then Design, and if its colors are not black and white, Reset, then Colors. Choose Ellipse on the tool rail.
- While the group plays at a table with spare black squares and light paper, bring children to the screen one at a time, for about five minutes each. Three or four children fit in one session, so keep the studio corner open on the days that follow until every child has had a turn. Sit beside the child and say, “Draw one big shape on the black.” The child drags a finger, or the mouse, across the sheet and lets go.
- The Flip direction chooser opens with four arrows. Ask, “Which way will the door open?” The child taps an arrow and watches the piece swing out over that edge: a dark shape beside its light twin, the hole. Read Flipping beforehand so you know what to expect.
- Press Undo in the title bar straight after the flip: the piece folds back and the chooser opens again with the same shape waiting (see Undo and redo). The child taps a different arrow. Ask, “Where did it go this time? Up, down or to the side?”
- Before the child leaves, ask them to point to the dark shape and its light twin and say “same and flipped” with you. Then choose Reset, then Design, to clear the sheet for the next child.
Session 4: Look and talk
- Hang the children’s pictures low, at their eye level, and sit in front of them with four to six children at a time, repeating the session with each small group. Show a red Chinese paper-cut. Say: “In China, people have cut paper for a very long time. For the Spring Festival, the New Year in China, many families paste red paper-cuts on their windows, and light shines through the holes.” Ask a child to point to a shape and to a hole.
- Show Icarus again, then Matisse’s The Snail (1953), a spiral of big shapes cut from painted paper. Ask, “Which shapes are big? Which are small?”
- Walk along the children’s pictures together. Invite each child to point to a dark shape and its light twin in a friend’s picture and say one thing they like. Offer a kind sentence to borrow: “I like your big door.”
- Ask each artist to tell the group one thing about their own picture, reading back the words you wrote if they want help. Say the pairs together one last time: dark and light, big and small, same and flipped.
Differentiation
Support
- For emergent bilingual students, teach the word pairs with gestures and real objects, and learn them in the child’s home language too; in Spanish, oscuro and claro, grande and pequeño, igual and volteado. Accept pointing and one-word answers as full answers.
- For children with fine-motor delays or disabilities, offer loop or spring-open scissors, larger 9-inch squares glued on an 18 by 24 inch painted sheet so every door has room to open, a square with its bite already cut, or a crease folded by an adult to tear along; tape the painting to the table so it does not slide.
- In the studio, a child who cannot drag a shape can still choose the door: an adult draws the shape, and the child presses an arrow key, or Tab and Enter, which a switch can send.
- For children who dislike the feel of paint or glue, offer a long-handled brush, a sponge clipped to a clothespin, or gloves, and let them watch first and join when ready.
Extension
- Tear two bites of different sizes from two edges and open both doors: one big twin and one small twin.
- Tear a bite from each of the four edges, then turn the picture around and decide which way up it looks best.
- Go on a twins walk around the room with a friend and find things that are the same but flipped: two shoes, two mittens, two hands.
Common misconceptions
- The piece belongs back in its hole, so the picture is broken until it goes back.
- Put the piece back to show that it fits, then open the door again: “It fits, so it is the twin. Out here we can see both of them.”
- Sliding the piece out is the same as flipping it.
- Try both with a lopsided bite. Slid out, it faces the same way as the hole; swung over the edge like a door, it faces the other way, a mirror. Keep it touching the edge the whole time, like a door on its hinges.
- Dark is bad or scary, and light is good.
- Say that dark and light are friends: the light twin only shows because the dark is around it. Talk about night and day, and shade on a sunny day, as partners.
Assessment
Checks along the way
- In session 2, carry a class list and check off each child who tears or snips a bite that starts and finishes on one edge.
- As each child glues, ask “Where is your dark shape? Where is its twin?” and note whether they point to the piece and then the hole.
- At the studio turn, note which arrow the child chose, whether they tried a second one after Undo, and the words they used for where it went.
- In look and talk, write down the sentence each child says about a friend’s picture or about Matisse.
Rubric
| Criterion | Beginning | Developing | Meeting | Exceeding |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tearing a shape from an edge | Tears small scraps from anywhere, or uses a square with its bite already cut. | Tears a bite with help, or one that reaches the edge at only one end. | Tears or snips one big bite that starts and finishes on the same edge. | Tears two or more bites of different sizes from different edges. |
| Opening the door | Glues the piece anywhere on the painting. | Places the piece by the edge but slides it out without turning it over. | Swings the piece over its own edge and glues it touching that edge, mirroring its hole. | Opens two or more doors this way and shows how with a swinging hand. |
| Naming with word pairs | Points when an adult names dark or light. | Uses one word pair correctly. | Uses two word pairs correctly about their own picture. | Uses all three pairs, and uses them about a friend’s picture too. |
| Looking at art by others | Looks at a friend’s picture or at Matisse when invited. | Points to a shape in someone else’s work. | Points to a dark and a light shape in someone else’s work and says one thing they like. | Says why they like it, or asks the artist a question. |
Safety
Tearing comes first, and the only cutting tool is a pair of blunt-tip child scissors, used seated with an adult at the table; nothing sharp is needed anywhere in this unit. Use washable, nontoxic tempera with the ACMI AP seal and glue sticks rather than liquid glue, cover the tables, wear smocks, and wash hands after painting and gluing. Watch that scraps of paper and glue sticks stay out of mouths. Keep screen time short: one turn of about five minutes per child, seated at a table with an adult beside them the whole time, and only the studio open on the device. The hub activity listed with this unit is written for learners aged 11 and up: use its pictures and ideas to prepare, and leave its paper-cutting tools out of the preschool room.
Standards cited
2022 Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines, Fine Arts: Art (VIII.A). Quoted word for word from the official text.
Prekindergarten
Fine Arts: Art
Prekindergarten children explore a wide variety of materials and make discoveries about color, shape, and texture through art experiences. They learn to express what they know and begin to recognize how others express themselves through art. They begin to gain control of fine-motor muscles and practice hand-eye coordination. The majority of art experiences should be model/sample free with the focus being on the process of creating.