Nature Inspires Projects at School 29

School 29 students in Ms. Elson’s grade 2 art classes engaged in a lesson that incorporated art with literacy and science using tree branches and leaves.  First, Ms. Elson read  "The Leaf Man" by Lois Ehlert to her students. The students then created spiral shapes, and learned how to show the illusion of movement with the curved lines.  The effect was of leafy branches tossing in the wind.  

 

 

 

 

Using warm colors for the leaves, and cool colors for the background, the students employed a wide variety of media in their artworks, including water color, oil pastels, and collage.

 

Ms. Elson’s grade 3 art students explored perspective in a lesson entitled “Looking Up at Fall.”  Students were asked to imagine looking at a tree from the perspective of lying on the ground and gazing up at it.  This “ant's eye view” causes the tree limbs and branches to appear increasingly slender as they rise up into the sky. They created their images through drawing and painting techniques, using pencils, sharpies, crayons, and brown watercolor tones on watercolor paper.  

 

 

By using curved lines in an abstract way they made the bark carry the viewer's eyes to the top of the page from the base. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Students in Ms. Elson’s grade 4 art classes learned about symmetry, a concept common to both math and art.  The students drew leafy branches in which one side of each leaf began as the mirror image of the other side.  (The mathematical term for this is reflection.)  

 

The students then used fall colors to enhance their artworks.