Grade 2: Klimt Trees

We're making progress on our "Trees of Life" paintings in second grade. I have not taught this lesson in a few years but thought they were in order this fall.
We started out looking at Klimt's "Tree of Life" and then learned how to draw a decorative tree. Drawing the tree can be tricky but my students did a nice job.
We outlined in sharpie and then practiced painting the trees with even strokes.
Next we are discussing the color wheel. Students will pick a primary color to sponge paint their background and then an analogous color sponged on top of that. I will post finished trees in the next couple of weeks!

Grade 4: White Birch Colorful Landscapes

My fourth graders did a great job with this landscape project. A couple years ago, I taught a lesson about birch trees but we created realistic background colors. This project called for lively, animated and colorful skies in which we painted and dripped paint using the wet on wet technique. We looked at an image of Klimt's 'Birch Forest' and then created our own.

Tyler 4VZ

Hall Display

Rachael 4VZ

My students practiced painting the birch trees using old Starbucks gift cards. The results were good but I think I prefer good, old fashioned, ripped cardboard for creating textures on trees.