Growing Trees Art - Grade 2

 Lesson Background:

Our spelling word of the week was "grew". We investigated the /gr/ blend, the /ew/ sound and past tense words. We read the gorgeous story "The Boy who Grew a Forest" by Sophia Gholz. We learnt about the country of India where the story is set and wrote information reports, had a visiting Indian friend of mine come to answer student questions about India whilst making us masala chai tea, and we looked at how plants and forests grow. 

Lesson Materials (per student):

A3 white art paper

lead pencil

Watercolour paint

Lesson steps:

1.  We looked at photos of forests looking up into the forest canopy. We talked about perspective.

2. I demonstrated how to draw a tree looking up to show perspective and how to place them around the page. Students drew their first tree alongside me step-by-step, and then completed the rest of their page independently, using as many trees as they wanted and changing the shapes, number of branches etc. to make it their own.

3.  I demonstrated how students could use light and shade in their tree foliage by using a mix of dark and light green and yellow watercolour paint. I also demonstrated how they could create the effect of foliage by pressing their brush in different ways.

4. Students painted their trees and backgrounds.

Student Artworks: