Kindergarten: Lesson 2 (December) Art Masterpiece: Four Ice Cream Cones, 1964 by
Wayne Thiebaud
Pronounced: TEE-bo
Keywords: Texture, Shape, Repetition
Activity: Stamping with Sponges
Meet the Artist:
• Wayne Thiebaud was born in Mesa, Arizona in 1920. Currently he lives in
California and is an art professor at a university.
• As a young man, he worked in an ice cream and hot dog café. These foods
gave him inspiration for his future paintings. His subjects include
cupcakes, gumball machines, pies, watermelon, hot dogs, and lipstick.
• He drew comic strips and was once an animator for the Walt Disney
Studios. He also served as an artist in the United States Army Air Force.
• He considered himself a painter, not a pop artist.
Kindergarten: Lesson 2 (December) Possible Questions:
• What shapes do you see?
• What do you think the ice cream cones would feel like if you could touch
them? How does this make you feel? Hungry? Thirsty? Happy? Cold?
• How are these ice creams different from real ice cream cones? How are
they the same?
• If you created a painting of your favorite food, what would you choose?
Activity: Stamping With Sponges
1) Cover the workstations with scrap paper, if desired.
2) Pass out one sheet of 9”x12” white construction paper to each student.
Have students write their name on the back of their paper.
3) Add small amounts of colored paints to bottles of white paint to create
light pastel colors (pink bubblegum, orange peach, green mint, purple
berry, blue bubblegum, and yellow lemon) to be used for the ice cream.
You will find this pastel paint premixed in bottles for your convenience.
Shake before using.
4) Lay out one of each color plate (6 colors of “ice cream” and 2 tan plates
for brown “cones”) and add the corresponding pastel paint to the
plates. Place circle sponges on the colored “ice cream” plates, and
triangle sponges on the brown “cone” plates. Lay a paper towel in front
of each plate for blotting.
5) Have the students come to the workstation 6 or 7 at a time. Show
them how to dip the sponge in the paint then blot off the excess on
the paper towel before stamping their sponge on the paper.
6) Before they start, ask the students to think how they are going to
place the shapes on the paper. How will they make them look like ice
cream cones? Do the circles go on top of the triangles or underneath?
How many ice cream cones do they want to create? What colors do
they want to choose? How many scoops of ice cream do they want on
top of each cone? They can have 2, 3, or 4 scoops if they choose!
Kindergarten: Lesson 2 (December) 7) Set up one sand tray and one glitter tray, and allow the children to
come up two at a time to sprinkle sand on the triangle cones or glitter
on their round ice cream scoops to add texture. When the artwork
dries, it will have a definite texture that they can feel. Lay artwork
flat to dry before hanging or sending home. Make sure the teacher
knows there are plastic grocery sacks in the Art Masterpiece general
supply tray that can be used to send the dry (but still sandy/glittery)
artwork home in.
8) Clean-up: Throw away the paper plates. Pour usable excess glitter and
sand from the trays into their respective containers to conserve
resources. Keep the sand/glitter trays for later use.
9) Be sure to wash off the sponges very well. The sponges will mold if
not dried off properly, so please leave them out to dry in the open
wash tub provided.
Materials Needed:
• 9 x 12-inch white construction paper
• Tempera paints of pink, yellow, orange, green, blue, violet, brown and
white (Pastel colors are pre-mixed in bottles for your convenience, but
more can be made by mixing small amounts of colored paint in a bottle
of white tempera paint.)
• Circle, triangle sponges
• Colored paper plates (one for each pastel color and 2 for brown)
• Paper towels for blotting and clean-up
• Scrap paper to cover the workstations
• Glitter & craft sand
• Two cardboard box trays to catch the sand and glitter mess
• Baby wipes to clean hands
• Plastic grocery sacks to carry dry artwork home in
Kindergarten: Lesson 2 (December) Artwork Examples:
Photographs and other paintings by Wayne Thiebaud: