1st Grade is learning about Landscapes right now. I tried this project last year and loved it. The kids get really excited about it too because it involves creating a Tree House!
Day One: We write about the word "Landscape" in our Idea Books. We look at several landscape paintings and identify the Foreground, Middleground and Background. This is when we use the "Magic Brush" to point out things on the projector screen. It makes it fun...if you don't have a "magic brush" decorate a piece of cardboard with sparkles and glitter after you cut it in the shape of a paint brush .Voila...fun to talk about art now!
We do a practice sketch in our idea books first...but essentially we start with a horizon line near the top of our paper...leaving room for some middleground mountains or what have you. We draw large flowers/plants in the foreground down at the bottom...letting our grass get smaller as it goes back into 'space' towards the horizon line. And on the horizon line we create a middleground...mountains, clouds, rainbows...(yes rainbows...) and of course a CIRCULAR sun...not a corner sun.
4 cups of very watered down tempera to keep this painting on the lighter side...
light green, dark green, purple and blue
i forgot to water this table's paint down and it actually looks pretty great...however when you don't water it down you loose all the oil pastel.
I demonstrate how you can draw into the wet paint with oil pastels too...and if something gets covered up, next week we can go back with oil pastels on top of the paint and bring things 'back to life'...cause oil pastels are the greatest.
Day Two: Building a Tree (coming soon)
