Snowmen at Night

 

Second graders read the story Snowmen At Night as inspiration for this project.  After discussing the story we turned our attention to the illustrations and began to discuss how artists use the elements of art.  Using the smart board we set out to create our own snowman.  Students used the obvious elements of shape and line to design their own snowman.  However, when we compared out snowman to the ones in the story we noticed a big difference in the artworks.  Ours seemed very flat, while the ones in the story were much more lifelike.  It was then that we started exploring the other elements of art- like texture (how things feel), form (3d shapes), and value (lights and darks).  After analyzing each element of art we learned that the artist didn’t just use one element…he used them all!  This is what made his art extra special!  Finally, armed with knowledge of all the elements of art and how artists use them we set out to create our own snowmen.  Students created forms by adding cool colored shadows (value) to the edges of their snowballs and thought about texture as they applied the colors by using the side of the charcoal.