Landscape Newscasts

I finally finished loading all the green screen landscape news reports to four movies, one movie for each 2nd grade section. Students are so excited to finally have their videos on YouTube. For this project, students were divided into groups of four to five students, together they were assigned one landscape from two artists; Grant Wood or Peiter Bruegel the Elder, and wrote a script before recording their video. Their script needed to include the following descriptions; horizon line, foreground, middle ground, background, overlapping, placement, size, and value. See my previous post explaining this project.

2A Landscape News

2B Landscape News

2C Landscape News

2D Landscape News

Breaking News: It's all in the Landscape!

Second graders are using DoInk's Green Screen iPad app to create a news report on art vocabulary relating to space (the design element in art not the physical universe beyond the earth's atmosphere). Students examined landscapes from two artists; Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Netherlands) and Grant Wood (Iowa). Students are working in small groups to create their news report. 

First step, examine a landscape painted by Grant Wood or Pieter Bruegel from one of the landscapes below. Step two, develop a skit and designate speaking parts as they would see in Reader's Theatre by writing Character’s Name, then colon or dash and finally speaking part. In the script, students must include the following art vocabulary; foreground, middle ground, background, overlapping, value, size, placement, and horizon line. Students must include the artist's name and year painted. 

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Winter Landscape with a Bird Trap 1565

Grant Wood, Young Corn 1931

Grant Wood, New Road 1939

Grant Wood, Fall Plowing 1931

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Harvesters 1565

We also discussed how every great story needs a beginning, middle and end. Once groups have completed their scripts and assigned a camera person, their group may begin filming with the iPad using the DoInk Green Screen App. The landscape assigned to that group will be displayed behind the "Newscasters" onto the green screen as they point out the important information and vocabulary the group discovered while writing their script.

Script Checklist

"The Illusion of Space" Activity

I tell my students all the time that artists use little tricks to create illusions in their art, such as creating an illusion that objects are up close and far away. By simply learning about these little magic tricks that artists' use, my students can also make their art appear to have the "illusion of space". This month's focus is the "Illusion of Space" and my little artists can make objects appear up close or far away by simply changing the value, location and size of objects in our landscapes. My SLO (Student Learning Objective) for this school year actually connects to the "Illusion of Space":

95% of students from sections 2B and 2C will identify and demonstrate the illusion of space using specific art vocabulary: foreground, middle ground, background, horizon line, placement on paper (high/far and low/near) and size relationships (near/large and far/small).

Today and tomorrow, 2nd graders will be playing a little "space" game to help identify the areas of space using the objects below. The objects need to be organized according to how artists create space in a landscape using value and size relationships. The large blue rectangle shapes are the foreground, middle ground, and background areas of space while the large, medium, and small tree should be overlapping the appropriate area of space; large tree on dark blue foreground, medium sized tree on medium blue middle ground, and small tree on light blue background.

The first graders and kindergarteners used the same shapes for a quick activity, but instead of working in pairs like the second grade group, I made two landscape boards on large 18 by 24 inch paper. On the large paper, I drew three lines and wrote the words foreground, middle ground, background, and sky to separate the areas of space.

Words on the left from bottom to top; foreground, middle ground, background, and sky.

Each child was assigned one of the six objects from above and asked to assign it to the appropriate area of space. The class was divided in half with half the class working on each board.  Students worked together to make sure each object was in its appropriate area of space according to what we just discussed about space; Objects in the foreground are larger than objects in the background (relative size), objects in the background are higher than objects in the foreground (position on the picture plane), and objects in the background are lighter than objects in the foreground (atmospheric perspective).

Some students thought blue was for sky, but were reminded that it was our ground color.

Kindergarteners working in groups of 8-10 students.

We looked at many examples of landscapes before completing this quick "space" activity. One of the pictures I used during my introduction was a landscape of blue hills at dusk. When students forgot that the blue rectangles were ground and assumed the pieces were part of the sky, I reminded them of the landscape from the introduction.

We also made a connection between Pieter Bruegel the Elder's "The Hunters in the Snow", painted in 1565, to Grant Wood's "Stone City, Iowa", created in 1930. Both are landscapes and both artists (although from different centuries) still used the same "space" skills we discussed to make parts of their paintings appear up close and far away.

Here are few quick videos (and when I say quick, I mean less than one minute) that I used as a resource to help demonstrate the "illusion of space" in art. I usually explain what to watch for within the video before even playing it, let them watch the video in its entirety, explain the items again to look for a second time, and replay the video a second time to maximize its effectiveness. There are other quick videos for the design elements and principles in the "Artist's Toolkit" to explore. My students love the quick videos because they have music and sound effects! I love the videos because they quickly and precisely teach an art skill!

http://www.artsconnected.org/toolkit/watch_space_overlap.cfm

http://www.artsconnected.org/toolkit/watch_space_perspective.cfm

SD Visual Arts Standards:
Anchor Standard 3: Refine and complete artistic work.
K.VA.Cr.3.1 Explain the process of making art while creating art.
1.VA.Cr.3.1 Use art vocabulary to describe choices while creating art (such as the elements and principles of design).
2.VA.Cr.3.1 Discuss and reflect with peers about choices made in creating artwork using art vocabulary (such as the elements and principles of design).

Anchor Standard 1: Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
1.VA.Cr.1.1 Engage in creative art making using observation and investigation.
2.VA.Cr.1.1 Brainstorm and implement multiple approaches, materials, and tools to solve an art or design problem.