> What are your favorite ancient art projects with elementary kids (or
> high school for that matter)? I've made pressed coins like the Romans
> did. Built a pyramid or two. But I'm curious what else you might be
> doing...and this would include prehistoric cave paintings etc.
MaryAnn,
I have a bunch of lessons, but don't have them on this computer's word
processing program. I do have them on my laptop, which is not
connnected to the Internet, however, it is a different word processing
program. When I transferrred plans to a disk from my laptop and tried
to convert to this computer, it was symbols and gibberish. Did you get
that or are you now as confused as I?
Anyhow, here goes with a couple. I just happen to be doing "A Time for
Art" this year in my elementary schools.
Cave Art:
Cave Walls:
First graders always love this, at least mine did. The old standby,
paint animals with typical cave colors using a homemade paint brush,
stick, feather, fingers, etc., onto brown butcher paper and outline with
charcoal. Then nibble tear paper to give an irregular edge and shape.
Crinkle and mount on black construction. They sometimes outline their
hand for their signature. They usually choose an animal that is
important to them like a pet or perhaps an endangered or extinct
animal. Good vocabulary intro and purpose of telling a story or
recording history with art.
3rd grade: First the children drew an outline of their favorite
prehistoric animal. This was after research done independently and in
art class. The kids then cut out their animal. Next, they crudely
rolled out a slab of red stoneware clay about 1/2 inch thick., more
smushing than rolling. Using the positive of their cutout, they
sponged the background with underglaze. Then they filled in blank
animal shape with underglaze. After oulining the animal in black
underglaze, the pieces were fired. Oh, don't forget to put a paperclip
in the back so they can be hanged. Edges are left irregular and the
surface is not flat or terribly smooth, so the slabs resemble rock.
They really turned out cool. One went on to Ohio's YAM exhibit for this
year.
I love to include lots of literature with my units, and have a list of
books that I used with this unit if you would like them.
4th Grade: Use oaktag (9x12) and again nibble tear to get an irregular
shape and rough edges. Coat with watered down glue. Immediately hold
paper over a container (I used a rubber wash basin) filled with about 2
inches of sand and sprinkle sand all over the glue. You may have to
touch up with glue, so you will have to donate an old paintbrush to this
cause! Some spots will be more heavily covered than others, and that's
okay, because you want it to look like rock. I like doing this better
than sandpaper, because it looks much more realistic. Then these
students used oil crayons to draw and smear pictures of their favorite
endangered animal. Lots of research in library and printing from
Internet. Their classroom teacher came and asked me why they were all
of a sudden interested in endangered animals....
Cave jewelry:
1st grade: Make fossils out of Model Magic using seashells and
different natural objects and allow to dry, Shape bones and beads out
of Magic and allow to dry. Don't forget to put holes through these. We
used skewers and straws. Also, don't make too thin where the hole is
going to go, or it will rip! When dry, use brown tempera cake or liguid
with alot of water and brush all over fossil. Wipe off with paper towel
and it looks just like a rock! String on rawhide or yarn with other
objects like feathers, seashell and nuts (drill holes) pieces of fur
(punch hole with paper punch) and you get these very cut necklaces. I
can't remember the title of the book I used, but it was something like
Stone Age News, a spoof on what would be in a newspaper if one had been
written during prehistoric time. A darling book, the kids especially
loved it!
4th Grade:
Same prniciple, only kids used clay to shape teeth, bones, beads and
each had to have a petroglyph medalion. It could be any shape, but had
to have some symbol or object carved on the medalion. We were also
doing a schoolwide Wyoming unit, and the kids looked on the Internet at
real petroglyphs from Rice Univ. I sent a newsletter home to parents,
Stone Age style like the book, and I got tons of stuff to add to the
necklaces. Again, the students loved this project.
Egypt:
Hieroglyphics:
I have all grade levels practice writing their names in a cartouche in
many different kinds of mediums. They also spend time decoding messages
from handouts and the board (instructions, or artist of the day, facts,
etc.) The fourth graders are tooling their hieroglyphs onto rectangular
pieces of copper sheeting. I want them to paint them with black ink and
rub with steel wool. We'll mount these onto matboard and glue some kind
of decorative cording or rope around the edges and criss-cross at the
bottom.
2nd Grade:
Oil crayon portraits of pharaohs and queens of Egypt using Egyptian
colors and gold paint to accent headpieces and pectoral necklaces.
These usually turn out stunning. Mat on black construction paper with
cartouche.
Okay, my fingers are falling off. Will post more ideas later if you
want them. Hope this is something you can use. I certainly have picked
your brain, website and books enough!
