Teaching About Diagrams Through Art

Last week we were getting ready to do some color mixing and finish painting an art project.  As I stood in my classroom waiting for my second graders to return from music it occurred to me that I should spot check their ability to identify and use a diagram.  We have looked at lots of different diagrams in our reading and during science so I was sure this would take a split second and we would be knee deep in color mixing. Once all their cute, smiling faces were seated in front of me I popped the question: "Second Graders, while I was waiting for you to come back from music I started wondering what a diagram is.  Can anyone help me remember?"  Not a peep.  I waited...and waited...and waited while we all processed this question.  Silence.

"Well," I went on "I was wondering if this picture is a diagram?" and pointed to the color wheel that was up on our Promethean Board.  Silence.  This was so unusual!  These guys are talkers and I wasn't getting anything from them.  "What do you notice about this picture?"

"There's lots of different colors."

"There's circles."

"There's triangles"

"There are lines that connect colors."

"Some of those lines make big triangles."

"Some lines are solid or broken."

"I see words."

Yes! We were finally getting somewhere.  After making all those great observations I finally told them that this picture was indeed a diagram.  I explained that it was called a color wheel and discussed how it helps people understand how to mix and use color.

After our discussion we used the color wheel to help us learn about mixing primary colors into secondary colors.  We then painted the rest of our snowmen with the beautiful secondary colors we made.

After finishing our artwork we came back together to review what a diagram was.  Here is what my second graders could tell me about diagrams after using the color wheel.

We are in the process of making our anchor chart "pretty" and have decided that as we find new diagrams we will paste them to our chart to help us remember what a diagram is and how a diagram can help us create and learn.

How do you teach your students about diagrams?