3D Names

Fifth graders began the year by using perspective to create 3D names.  This was a great project for learning not only one-point perspective but also different color concepts.

Learning Goal: I can...
- Use a horizon line, vanishing point and perspective lines to create the illusion of form.
- Use watercolor pencils to blend analogous colors
- Use complementary colors to make my name stand out

Perspective Farm Fields

First graders talked about perspective using this farm field project. We talked about how objects that are close look big and things that are far away look small even if they are the same size in real life. We used a vanishing point and perspective lines to make our gardens look like they are going off into the distance.

Learning Goals: I can...

- Use perspective lines and size to show distance

The idea for this lesson came from here!

Snowman Perspectives

In this lesson, fourth graders learned that "perspective" means "point of view."  In order to add interested to artwork, artists often come up with unique perspectives of their subjects.  The cool part of this project was that we didn't use paper! Instead, each student was given a sheet of transparency plastic to turn into stained glass!  We used white acrylic paint for the snow and permanent markers for the color!  First students drew their perspectives onto paper with pencil. Then the drawings were traced onto the plastic with black sharpie. The paint and color was done on the back!

Learning Goals: I can...

- Show 4 different perspectives of the same subject (snowman)

- Explain what stained glass is

- Explain the difference between transparent (the sharpie) and opaque (the white paint)

Inspiration for this project came from here.

Fall Trees

This year 3rd grade created fall trees.  This was a great project we used to talk about space, blending, texture, highlights, shadows, form and shape!  I found this project on Pinterest which is a place I get many lesson ideas!

Learning goal:  I can show space.  We began by reviewing a number of ways to show space and then we focused on two ways: size and overlap.  We used perspective lines to show that as you look upwards the tree gets smaller.  We used overlapping to show how leaf clusters that are farther away hide behind clusters that are closer to the viewer.

After coloring the tree brown, we added highlights and shadows to make our tree trunks look more 3D and to show texture.

We practiced blending our warm colors to create a smooth transition between colors.

Finally, we painted our backgrounds blue! Everyone had great results!