Tuesday, January 20, 2015

2nd Graders and Building Lines

What Building Can You Make with Lines?




2nd grade students are immersed in a unit of line. Students are learning all about different kinds of lines, different types of lines and how to use lines to create different shapes and objects. To help students understand these sizable art concepts, students looked at buildings and the straight lines used in drawing buildings. Students learned how to use rulers to help them with making their buildings. After using rulers and pencils students then went over their lines with crayon and used watercolor paints to add beautiful hues to their work. 

However, before students could start on this construction process, students had to think about what was going to happen in their building. Students asked themselves, what would people do in their buildings and what the name of building would be. Students also looked at the Empire State Building for inspiration and read the story Tar Beach by artist Faith Ringgold.

Above are pictures of the artist Faith Ringgold and her book Tar Beach.


Below are examples of amazing buildings that students created and cities they built together!




Some students even choose to add small objects into the completed city such as cars, buses, street lamps, and people. There were even a few students who added some flying super heroes into their cities!






Here are examples of the completed cities displayed around our school!







As a final piece to this project, students also filled out a written reflection. This is where students did small drawings and explained what happened in their building, what they decided to name their building and what they felt went really well in the creation of the project.