3rd grade Social Studies focuses on regions of the United States. I love that the teachers start in New England, because as they/everyone knows
We start with a lesson and visuals on atmospheric perspective, overlapping, tints and color of background and sky.
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| Rocky Mountains - Albert Bierstadt |
Following that we study Grandma Moses and the style of folk art which has very deep foregrounds but still has the correct technique for the atmosphere and background.
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| July Fourth by Grandma Moses |
The students watch the Ox Cart Man Reading Rainbow Episode - my favorite of all time of course - and look at the illustrations by Barbara Cooney.
Then we begin our painting. Kids get a limited pallet with two brushes - first flat or round medium brush, then a chubby fat one. No water. We go in a certain order so we don't need to wash.
Using the medium brush, paint a high horizon line with the darker turquoise. I use Dick Blick Student Tempera.
Paint ground with green.
Paint the background mountain range with the lighter turquoise paint; this one is Crayola brand. I have them paint the line for the mountains and then fill in, all the way to the horizon line.
Grab some white and mix into the mountains to lighten them up. The can even create a bit of overlapping here to show different mountains in the range.
Pick up the chubby brush and stipple in fluffy white clouds.
Stipple in a line of orange paint - these are the hills that are in the background but closer than the mountains. They have leaves that are changing colors so that we know it's fall!
Finally stipple in the red and let dry.
Next class we review the illustrations and discuss simple Folk Art style houses. The kids draw one or two for the foreground and use sharpies for the windows and doors.
After gluing down they paint in a white fence. We discuss balance of white clouds in the sky, white fence in the foreground; and the repetition of line in the fence.
Our beautiful fall folk art mixed media paintings are on display. I can't wait for my daughter to get to 3rd grade to paint me one; I've already got the spot for it :)
Happy Autumn!
