Year 2 Week 6 - Fresco and Perspective Art Projects

Year 2             Week 6          Renaissance Dress up with Fresco and Perspective Art Projects!

Today we had another Wonderful Wednesday!  The dress up theme was anything Renaissance and we had a variety of fun costumes today.  There were crusaders, gypsy's, peasants, queens, and pirates to name a few!

We had two projects today because our first project needed some time for the plaster of paris to set up....so I added the second project to give time for that!  We did one project based on Michelangelo's work which was a fresco.  The second project was really just for fun!  It had some elements of perspective to it but most of all, it was just to be silly and have fun.


We started our fresco project first.  We had the kids pick from a variety of printed images that I had googled online that were related to medieval times.  They were pictures of things like castles, queens, fleur de les and medallion designs.  I had found some Chinet plates that were square and I thought they would serve nicely as a "frame" for our fresco's.  Once they decided on their designs, then I moved them on to the next project while some of the Moms mixed and poured plaster of paris into the plates to allow them to begin setting up for our use later.  The plaster of paris was mixed to "buttermilk" consistency (which was just under 2 parts plaster to 1 part water) and then poured into the plate and tapped until it filled all the corners nicely and was smooth and flat for drying.

While that was setting up, the kids were given black and off-white construction paper and given instructions to trace their shoes on the black and their hands on the off-white piece.  They then cut out their hands and shoe shapes to apply later to their drawing.  Next they were given a large piece of art paper and shown some ideas for how they could draw a person falling or jumping or swinging etc.  I explained that their legs and arms would be bigger as they are closer to the front of the page (like in perspective art).  This would then be where their hands and feet they cut out would be applied, to complete their drawing.

They began drawing their ideas for their people (which was really a "silly self portrait").  I was impressed with how well they all really grasped the concept.  They chose swinging, falling and jumping people.  Everyone had their details a little different and there was a lot of room for creativity.  It was fun to watch what they all came up with.

Once they had drawn their person and decided their background scene, they began adding their hands and shoes and started coloring them in, adding the final details.

Final project results.

Once their person project was completed, then we went back to our fresco's which were not completely dried (still slightly moist to the touch but not soft at all).  This was how we wanted to have them for the next part of the project.  So the kids took their image they picked and they got their plates, taped their image onto the plaster and began copying the design with a pencil, pressing hard enough to transfer the image but not too hard so as to break the paper.

When they were done tracing it looked like this.....

The kids then took tempura paints and began painting their fresco!

 We took one final picture before we sat down to eat our snack and do our review.  The kids did a great job and had a lot of fun!  It was a nice out of the ordinary project for our Wonderful Wednesday, since most of the time we focus heavily on the science for our projects.