K-3 Grade Landscape Paintings
![]() The following project was completed by an art teacher at the Toledo Museum of Art. I was in the class as an observer and helped the students with their projects.
Course# AED 5990 Toledo Museum of Art 1st and 2nd Grades Teacher: Paula Nowicki Observer: Patricia Whittington Lesson Plan: Mixed Media: Painting Landscapes Art Elements and Principles of Design in the Lesson Plan: Students remembered the basic routine of the classroom by sitting around the outside external side of the tables to view the chalkboard. Materials were prepped prior to class time for easy distribution. The 26 students were very lively and loud in the beginning until instruction began. The students were told to look at the board and asked specific questions; “ What is a contour line? What is a landscape? What is spatial depth and perspective mean? These are the questions that will be answered today.” Key Words: contour lines, contrast, horizon line, foreground, middle ground, background, Vanishing Point in One Point Perspective or Linear Perspective, H.O.P.S. equals Hazy, Overlapping, Position and Size, in reference to perspective when learning about landscape paintings or realistic landscapes. The discussion continued with realism verses impressionistic painting styles of landscapes. Atmospheric perspective such as Sanford Gifford’s Lake Nemi or The Wilderness. The repetition of shapes in paintings on large scale and more detailed in the front of the painting, and small scaled objects painted with less detail and fuzzy towards the horizon line area to indicated the perception of depth and dimension in the painting. Warmer colors verses cooler colors. Warmer colors brings objects forward in the painting, cooler colors make objects recede. Gallery Visit: The tour started with the American painter’s gallery viewing realistic style paintings. Whistlow Homer’s Sunlight on the Coast: Pointed out the contour line of the shapes of the waves, rocks and small ship that made up the entire painting. Other descriptive words included horizon line, foreground qualities of size and details in comparison to the background with the position of the smaller sized ship and fuzzy details near the horizon line giving the painting spatial depth and one point perspective. Thomas Cole’s The Architect’s Dream was a second example pointed out of realistic painting, one point perspective and details of foreground, middle ground and background areas. Childe Hassam’s Rainy Day Boston was an example of a Genre style, realistic painting depicting cool colors and a two point perspective view. The students turned most of their ears off when two point perspective and became restless after 5 minutes in one location. Some of the girls were standing away from the group and giggling. That issue was addressed by asking the students come closer and was asked what was funny and if they could rejoin the group. Being pointed out at the center of attention most students prefer to avoid, thus it quiets their behavior and reinstates the students to be more respectful. The Gallery visit continued onto the Impressionist gallery where students learned the difference between realistic paintings and impressionistic paintings. The teacher focused on the similarities of painting that contained one point perspectives, horizon lines, foreground, middle ground and background and being able to focus on the shapes that made up the painting to be able to draw the contour lines of that painting.
Content Area: History, Science Art Elements / Principles of Design: color line shape, texture, pattern, repetition. The students were asked to choose a painting and draw contour lines of the shapes in their paintings so they would be able to redraw those lines in the classroom. Students were asked to stay in a single file line, for which half did not when walking through the galleries. Most of the student’s voices were loud. Classroom Management: When we returned to class, students were seated and supplies were passed out as students were given instructions on copying what they see in their sketches onto a bigger sheet of paper using oil pastels drawing contour lines and then paint in the areas with tempera cakes paint. They specifically were told not to fill in the lines with oil pastel. Some students didn’t listen to the instructions and colored in areas with oil pastel crayon. But for the most part, the students completed their projects as best they could and took the projects home. |
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Cleanup: Students were asked to help with cleaning up by taking their paint brushes and water containers to the sink. Teacher and assistants cleaned up the remaining materials and supplies. The students were able to take home their projects the same day.