Introduce older students to the paintings of Victor Vasarely. His art features geometric forms and a technique that uses color contrast to achieve three-dimensional looking designs. Instruct students to create a piece of artwork in this style by using a ruler and colored pencils to draw a geometric design on white paper. Paint the design using only four colors in contrasting colors. Then mix the paint shades with white paint and add to certain sections of the painting to make parts of the design appear closer. Add a bit of black paint to the original paint colors to create darker shades. Applying these darkened colors to sections of the design make those areas appear further away.
Create a shape book when working with younger students on shape recognition. Fold and staple together three or four sheets of white paper to form the blank book. Have students create a cover for their book. Supply them with safety scissors and old magazines. Instruct them to feature a different shape on each page of the book. For example, a child could glue on cut out tires, plates or clocks on the circle page. Provide students with glue sticks to complete their shape books.
Instruct students to tear some shapes from white paper such as circles, triangles, squares, rectangles, hearts and diamonds. Use a glue stick and attach the shapes in random spots to a larger piece of white paper. With a marker, the students should then color the entire paper, including the glued-on shapes, in a colorful design. Students can then challenge themselves and others to find the hidden shapes in their pictures.
Cut large pieces of white paper into shapes such as circles, squares and triangles. Have the children glue on various cut out matching shapes in various sizes and colors on the circle page. Glue circle cutouts on this page. Cut out and glue square shapes to the square page. Repeat the process for the other pages. Cover the entire paper to create a shape collage.