Lichtenstein Lesson

ROY LICHTENSTEIN INSPIRED LESSON WITH ADAPTIONS

Roy Lichtenstein and his colorful "Pop" artworks makes for an engaging lesson. Adding a language arts component with a lesson on onamonapias creates a great cross curricular connection. Adapting this lesson for students with cognitive and fine motor deficits was relatively easy.

As I gathered students around to discuss the artist after viewing an ABC good Morning clip, the excitement over Lichtenstein's art was evident.  I had the students go around in a circle and name an onamonapia after we discussed what they were. I purposely had my students with learning disabilities go towards the end so they would learn by example. It worked they picked up on those words that sound like they are written.

Lichtenstein Video Clip

The objectives of the lesson were to use an onamonapia, use at least 2 illustration techniques that Lichtenstein used, such as ben-day dots, a black outline, primary colors and multiple hatching lines.

 Adapting The Lesson
The lesson was adapted by having students with disabilities use pre-printed or cut stencils for the words, Giving students a choice is very important, you should never just hand them a word you chose.   The lesson's objectives were reduced to only needing one illustration technique to meet the students at their level of readiness.

Offer a choice of spelling the word with pre-cut letters or printed text.







Outlining the newspaper cutout can be done hand-over-hand, independently with verbal guidance or by a paraprofessional as a way to define the area to be painted. Your choice depends on the individual skill level of the student.

Adapted Student Artwork

Student Artwork by able-bodied peer.

Student Artwork created by able-bodied peer.

Adaptive Day of the Dead Lesson for Cognitive Deficits

Kids love making skeleton "Day of the Dead" or  Día de Muertos artworks. First grade students drew skeleton portraits with chalk  on black paper, then filled in with white tempera paint. To celebrate the holiday Día de Muertos, we decorated the pictures with flowers painted with paintbrush dipped in pastel colors.

Able-Bodied Peers Art

Able-Bodied Peers Art

I adapted the lesson for my special needs students by creating tracers which reflected the negative skeleton image. Students then used a shaving cream brush to paint with adapting for their doorknob grasp. They are much easier for self-expression. 

The skeletons teeth were created by cutting sponges into small pieces and pinching with a clothespin. Sponges on clothespins are great for fine motor development.

Flowers were created by dipping fingers in pastel paint and placing one color in the center and using fingerprints of a contrasting color for the petals. Using body parts to create art allows for a sensory and kinesthetic experience, while creating an awareness of self.


Remember you can engage all learners in creative self-expression.

Gross Motor/Fine Motor Development Lesson inspired by Hans Hoffman

Gross motor adaptations encourage the development of the larger muscles which support and affects the development of fine motor skills. I began this lesson using my interactive whiteboard with a great website by PBS.  http://www.pbs.org/hanshofmann/index.html
This website allowed me to introduce the students to his work with color theory, while allowing my students to be engaged in an interactive activity which illustrates Hans Hoffman's "Push and Pull" theory regarding color. Working on a vertical surface increases trunk stability. Using the interactive pen encourages students to cross their midline which also increases gross motor development.

Having students paint squares was not an option for my students with gross and fine motor disabilities. I adapted this lesson by having pre-cut squares in a variety of warm and cool colors and warm and cool backgrounds. Prior to having the students glue the squares on we looked at three piles of different size squares and rectangles and the students reviewed small, medium and large sizes. The students then glued the large squares first, followed by medium and small. We discussed how cool colors receded and warm came forward.

Show rather than say how to glue.

Part two of this lesson was a print making lesson where students used fine motor skills to select and place cardboard rectangles on cardboard sheets to create print plates. Once dry the students applied ink with a brayer, great for gross motor strength building and then printed warm colors on cool paper. A barren was used independently or for several of my students with limited strength a "hand-overhand" technique was used. Another option would be a weighted sleeve, available from  your schools physical therapist.

Adapting the lesson in this manner allowed students to work independently as they were engaged in the creative process of art making. The result a finished product which illustrated the concept and was aesthetically pleasing allowing for the students self-esteem to blossom as they successfully created their art.

Hand-over-hand if needed

Welcome, this blog is a creative resource of strategies for adapting art lessons for students with disabilities; the adaptations are designed to work through a students ability. By using your students strengths and looking at what they can do as opposed to can't do you are enabling your learners creativity and self-expression to develop and emerge in their artwork.

Bette Naughton