Lines and Shapes Art

Whether lines are straight, thin, dotted or thick, they are the beginning of fun shapes like circles, squares and rectangles. This art project is perfect for scissor cutting skills and combines literacy with art when paired with the book When A Line Bends… A Shape Begins by Rhonda Gowler Greene.

The simple step-by-step makes the activity easy enough for kids of all ages. If you’re looking endless fun, become a VIP Plato Pack member so you can get all of the tools, strategies and support you need to reach ALL of your learners.

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Getting Ready

To get ready, I gathered supplies for each student:

One 12 x 12-inch piece of black construction paper for the background
Various colors of 6 x 6-inch pieces of construction paper for lines.
Scissors
Glue Stick
Optional: When A Line Bends…A Shape Begins by Rhonda Gowler Greene (Affiliate link)

Tip: I folded the construction paper in half horizontally, unfolded it, then in half again the other direction so the background paper would have 4 equal squares for the paper lines to be glued into.

Introducing Lines and Shapes

To start, I wanted to get the children thinking about various lines and shapes, so I decided to start the lesson by pulling out the adorable book When A Line Bends… A Shape Begins and reading it aloud.

It was a great way to talk about how lines make different shapes and get the kids’ creative juices going.

Then it was time to create our line and shape art!

Lines and Shapes Art

First, I had the children choose one piece of paper to start cutting.

Each student cut a straight line across their chosen piece of 6 x 6 colored construction paper, followed by a second line.

Once kids felt comfortable with the scissors, I encouraged them to create different lines such as straight, thin, thick, wavy, dotted, broken and zig-zag.