Putting it into Perspective

The school day is now 45 minutes longer due to snow days. Instead of using the 35 minute extra art time for each class to continue to work on their current classwork, I've changed my perspective and decided to give each class a little challenge! 


2nd grade class #1 dove into perspective after watching a cool Reading Rainbow video on 1 point perspective. I borrowed an Elmo (document camera with projector) from their teacher to demo this lesson. . . I shouldn't have borrowed it because now I'm foaming at the mouth to have one. 


I copied off my own "Complete the Picture 1 Point Perspective Railroad Track" page. The picture had a horizon line, vanishing point, one diagonal line for the train track, one small telephone pole, and one large telephone pole. Students completed their pictures while I demoed on the Elmo. 
Supplies: "Complete the Picture page"
ruler, pencil, and eraser. 
Vocabulary:
Horizon line
Vertical, Diagonal, Curvy lines
Vanishing Point
Foreground, Middle ground, Background
Diagonal line
Construction lines

Awesome results!

2nd grade class #2 watched the same video, but this time I let them follow along with the artist that drew the 1 P.P. train track. Sorry no pics from that one. The students liked it so much I decided that we should try some shapes. 

So we drew our Horizon line, vanishing point, and four shapes (square, rectangle, triangle, and circle). I told them we were going to use the same technique with our shapes and they would follow along while I demoed.  Students connected points and curves of their shapes to the vanishing point. Once two shapes were done together, students caught on and I let them continue on. Some even added more shapes with some stencils from the Free Choice Shelf.