In a message dated 01/18/2002 9:55:33 PM Eastern Standard Time,
Rgart58@aol.com writes:
> I have been working with patterns and camouflage with the 2nd graders.
> I would like to have an artist or artwork to tie into the activity Please
> list any that you might know of.
> Thanks....
> Robin in VA ---
>
Hi, Robin! I find that Henri Rousseau is a good artist to tie in. I have a
print of his painting, "Surprise", hanging in my room. The tiger is hidden
in the folliage. There are a number of his paintings that have hidden
images, or at least ambiguious ones, and the kids love to find the
"camouflaged" images. My 4th graders are enjoying this project right now,
however, I think it would be equally appropriate for 2nd grade:
Camouflage Comes to the Jungle
The kids took one piece of construction paper for the jungle background and
one for the sky and glued them together. You can offer a wide range of
shades. Next, they painted a variety of leaves, vines, shapes on this
background. Give them photocopy pics of jungle leaves as reference, and
inspire them with the variety that they see in Rousseau's paintings. Each
student picked a jungle animal and made his/her own stencil of the animal.
Then, they chose a patterned animal paper, or appropriate paper on which to
trace their stencil, and cut it out. Glue down on painted background. For on
top of their animal, have them cut out a variety of additional leaves and
vines from construction paper and all sorts of papers. Have real reeds
available for them to cut and glue down, twist tissue or crepe paper, use
yarn and natural twine. All this collage material works well as a camouflage.
Some children cut out leaves and painted them with spots of color and glued
them on top of their animal to camouflage, also.
Susan on Long Island
