3 sessions; 40 minutes per session

1. SWBAT identify the foreground, middle-ground, and background in an artwork.

2. SWBAT create a foreground, middle-ground and background in their artwork using size and placement of trees.

3. SWBAT define depth.

4. SWBAT paint using various waterolor techniques (wash, wax resist, salt crystals).

1. Watercolor paper
2. Masking tape (1" and 2" wide)
3. Crayons
4. Tempera paint
5. Q-tips
6. Salt
7. Paintbrushes and water
8. Black acrylic paint
9. Flat paint scraper

Need these materials? Visit Blick!

1. Look at various examples of photographs of the woods. Birch trees are prevelant in the North Country so touch on where they grow and what might live in them. Discuss tree placement. (How can you tell some trees are closer and some are farther away?) Discuss what a horizon line is and teach students about the foreground, middle-ground and background.

2. On the watercolor paper, use masking tape to mask off the trees. Use the thick tape to create close, big trees and the thin tip to make the farther away, thin trees.

3. Using crayons, draw in a horizon line and any other details to the picture (fence, pond, path, house, etc.).

4. Demonstrate how to paint a wash with the watercolor paint. Show students how to blend colors together while the paint is still wet. Give students work time. (When doing this project in the winter time, use salt crystals to create the effect of snow and show students how to create shadows in the snow using black and blue paint.)

5. Peel off the masking tape once the paint is dry. Using black acrylic paint and a flat paint scraper, add the effect of birch tree lines by scraping the paint across each tree. Finish off the trees as fall trees by using a Q-tip to add leaves with red, yellow and orange tempera.

Students will be assessed based on the attached rubric.

Students will create a fall birch tree scene in the beginning of the year a winter scene in the middle of the year, and a spring/summer scene at the end of the school year to show their understanding of depth, craftsmanship and watercolor paints.

[K-4] Students use different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories

[K-4] Students use art materials and tools in a safe and responsible manner

[K-4] Students use visual structures and functions of art to communicate ideas

[K-4] Students select and use subject matter, symbols, and ideas to communicate meaning

Realism

Texture, Space, Proportion/Size, Color/Value, Balance

Crayon, Acrylic, Watercolor

Geography

K-2 Rubric (Teacher).docx