From cave walls to clay images.

About 15,000 BC, the bison and other animals roamed the land and cave people, in their spare time, found colorful, chalky rocks to play with. Over the course of time, they found that the chalky rocks would rub off on the cave walls, thus cave paintings and the pursuit of art was born.

Objectives

This art history lesson of the first artists was taught to fourth grade students. One objective for this two-week lesson was for students to learn how prehistoric peoples used art to communicate by using simple tools to make images and natural materials for paints. Another objective was to learn how to create a three-dimensional picture of a prehistoric figure on a textured piece of construction paper.

Discovering

To introduce the lesson, I took students outside to draw a picture on the sidewalk with chalk. I told them their pictures could be objects they see, places they like to go, or animals. Once the pictures were complete, we discussed their experience of drawing outside on the sidewalk. Topics of discussion included: texture (How did the ground feel? How did the chalk feel?); the reaction of the chalk on the sidewalk (Was it difficult to draw a detailed picture due to the texture of the sidewalk and the soft, powdery chalk?); and the drawing (Does it tell a story? Why did you draw that particular subject?).

Looking and Learning

Students studied and discussed artworks from the caves in Lascaux, France and Altamira, Spain. We studied the rough textures and colors seen on the cave walls. Through our discussion, students were able to compare and contrast their sidewalk chalk drawings to the cave paintings, recognizing the bumpy textures and uneven surfaces. We also discussed the cave people's use of natural materials for tools and pigments. Through observation and discussion, students discovered that wall paintings told a story of what prehistoric people saw and did in their daily lives.

Creating

First, students created texture by placing a plastic textured rubbing plate under the black construction paper and rubbing with gold, silver, brown, and yellow crayons. Then students were given a small portion of clay to create an animal, cave person, or object that would have been seen in the prehistoric time period. Students created an animal by rolling the modeling day into a ball and pinched out shapes for a head, ears, legs, and a tail. Others created a cave person by rolling the modeling clay into a ball and pinched out shapes for a head, hair, arms, legs, and outfit. Some created an outline of a hand by tracing their hand on the black construction paper and rolling the ball of modeling clay into a long coil that was placed around the traced handprint.

After students created their three-dimensional objects, they pressed the animal, cave people, or outline of the hand on the black textured construction paper. Some students created more textures within their artwork. When dry, I lightly sprayed gold paint on top of the clay figure to enhance the texture.

Reflecting and Extending

At the end of the lesson, students discussed why the cavemen painted stories of life experiences on the cave walls. This led to students writing creative stories. Some stories were about the animals they created or what it was like to be a cave person who observed the animals. Other stories were about hunting, survival, weather and other observations during the prehistoric time.

Adapting for Other Grade Levels

This lesson can be taught to first through fifth grade students. It focuses on building fine motor skills, vocabulary words, and history.

Resource

The Story of Painting. Sister Wendy Beckett. New York, NY: DK Publishing, 2000.

Chronicle of the World. Jacques Legrand. New York, NY: Penguin Book Ltd. 1996.

WEB LINKS

www.culture.fr/culture/arcnat/ lascaux/en/

NATIONAL STANDARD

Students use subject, themes, and symbols that demonstrate knowledge of contexts, values, and aesthetics that communicate intended meaning in artworks.

Julie Stone is an art teacher at Cleveland Court Elementary School in Lakeland, Florida. [e-mail].