Monochromatic Moonscape Paintings by 4th Grade

Well, I wanted to do this project earlier in the year and boy let me tell you I'm so glad I did because I got observed during my introduction to this project. This painting encompasses soooo many different disciplines...the lesson plan looks great on paper to principals!

Day One: Intro

We write in our idea book the term Monochromatic Moonscape...then we break it down...

they create a value scale with their thumbprint and a marker. Then we watch a Brain Pop video on the phases of the moon....SCIENCE! 

https://www.brainpop.com/search/search.weml?keyword=moon

Then they draw the moon on their 9 x 18 white drawing paper. We create echo rings around the moon and paint a different value inside with blue, red or purple mixed with white. 

They mix their tints to get light around the moon. 

Day Two: We talk about the history of silhouettes and practice drawing trees. Their requirement is to paint at least one tree and another object of their choice with solid black. I encourage a tree with no leaves so they will get into some nice line work with the branches.

I love how a little bit of blue snuck into these purple paintings. 

Tada!

Parisian Landscape (Project Idea from Cassie Stephens)

Check out her amazing blog for the step-by step in great detail. http://cassiestephens.blogspot.com/2012/11/in-art-room-collaged-paris.html

I basically copied everything she did...cause it's awesome. 

Here's my kid's version of a Parisian Landscape. This project is loaded with awesome vocab, geography, language skills, reading/literacy, painting skills, collage skills....I can go on and on. 

DAY ONE: 

VALUE CHANGE BACKGROUNDS

MIXING TINTS AND SHADES

Sneak Preview to Last Day....using special sharpies!

Yes, I battled some nice lady in the Kroger clearance rack for these super cheap Metallic Sharpie markers. OOOH yeah. 

We used these on the last day to add details to our buildings!

DAY TWO: 

SECONDARY COLOR MIXING....and TEXTURE COMBS!

THESE THINGS ARE AWESOME! 

To get better results...I had the kids mix their green and paint it on their paper...then I came around and drizzled some pre-made green so their paint would be extra thick for the dragging the texture comb through. If the paint isn't thick enough, the texture comb just rips the paper. 

DAY THREE:

Tearing the grass diagonally and gluing it to the background with a space in between to create the Seine River. 

Added some background detail with oil pastels....they decide day or night.

DAY FOUR:

Creating 4 Parisian Landmarks: 

The Eiffel Tower, L'Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame Cathedral and Pont-Neuf

DAY FIVE....adding more buildings...We learned how to fold our paper in half, then cut a shape so that our architecture would be symmetrical. And lastly, we decorated with Metallic Sharpies!

These are definitely going in the ART SHOW!