The last culture we are studying is South Africa. Students are learning about the Big Five wildlife, art, life of a kid, the apartheid, and Nelson Mandela. It's a lot to squeeze into one lesson. We also read some South African folktales and discussed the importance of animals to South Africans throughout history and during our present time. Students then used tissue paper to create an African sunset scene and traced African animal silhouettes on to black construction paper to give the effect of South African wildlife walking the Savannah at sunset. A little messy, but so much fun! Many classes have not gotten to this lesson yet, so lots of great artwork to come!
Ok, so just about everyone has completed their Greek frescoes by now. This was actually our week one project, but took the longest because the students used chalks to create their artwork. During this lesson we learned about all of the aspects of Greek life (many of which were handed down to us), including theater, art, and Olympic sports. We also studied the very interesting Greek gods an goddesses of Mount Olympus and did a little drama with Greek mythology. Students then illustrated their favorite concept of Greek culture by creating a Greek fresco using chalk pastels. They outlined their finished product with a sharpie.
I still haven't posted any pictures of our week 1 project, the Greek frescoes, because some students are still working on theirs. During week 3 of gifted, we studied French culture and focused on two artists who were inspired by French culture: Vincent Van Gogh and Georges Seurat. After travelling to Paris, France and standing atop the Eiffel Tower (via Google Earth), students learned about the artistic styles of these two famous artists. The students then chose the artist style they liked the most and created a landscape masterpiece of their own!
This was not actually our first lesson this year, but many students are still working on their Greek frescoes so I decided to go ahead and post some of our Egyptian self-portraits. This was a great lesson! We used Google Earth to "fly" to Egypt then students researched Ancient Egyptian culture using iPads, books, and Symbaloo (which I love!). After sharing what we had learned, we discussed Ancient Egypt a little more together. Finally we turned ourselves into Egyptian kings and queens by creating self portraits. This was fun and super easy; the kids loved it! The pictures are just printed off in black and white on paper. Students used colored pencils and markers to add crowns, chest plates, and even facial hair and the notorious Egyptian eyeliner. Finally they wrote their name in Egyptian hieroglyphs.
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AuthorRachel Glass ArchivesCategories |