Winter Landscapes

Value, tint and shade are always interesting to teach to my younger grades. They LOVE to make tints and shades with paint. For this lesson we started by looking at Picasso "le gourmet" and discussing value. I always try to get my kids to bring up the topic we are going to be focusing on. We start by drawing the background with pencil, just drawing wavy lines. Then we get busy with paint. They paint the top section with plain blue, then one person at the table mixes in a little bit of blue to the white. We will be using this for the snow, so try to stress just a little bit of blue. Paint the section on the bottom of the paper, than have another student mix in more blue paint. Students will then paint the next section, repeat till paper is finished.

 Day 2: Shades of green
Fold paper into 4 sections, have students paint one section with plain green. Then have students add black to green and mix and paint the next section.  Repeat until each section is done.

Day 3: Lots of cutting!!
Students will cut the green paper into four sections. I then used templates, and students traced 3 large trees with the light green. Then they used the 2 middle greens to trace as many as medium size trees as possible. Then use the darkest green to trace as many little trees as you can. Then cut, cut, and cut some more. Students will then glue a row of little trees in the back, a row of medium trees next, and then the large trees up front. Use Q tips to make the snow.