Merging prehistoric & contemporary technology.Most middle school students, even many adults, think that art did not exist in prehistoric times. It's quite a surprise for them to view the art left behind in the caves of Lascaux and Altamira and to speculate why ancient peoples painted these beautiful animals and symbols. Using Both High and Low Tech We introduced the sixth grade to cave paintings Cave or Rock Paintings are paintings on cave or rock walls and ceilings, usually dating to prehistoric times. The earliest known rock paintings are dated to the Upper Paleolithic, 40,000 years ago, while the earliest European cave paintings date to 32,000 years ago. in two ways: in computer class the students investigated the Lascaux Web site and toured the cave online, making Web sites for their own imagined caves. In art class, students were introduced to cave art cave art: see Paleolithic art; rock carvings and paintings. from Lascaux and other ancient caves and made their own version out of natural art materials Techniques and materials related to art: Traditional techniques:
The Computer Project After interacting with the Lascaux Web site, students were introduced to Micro Worlds Pro software. First, they used the painting tools to construct a cave of their own. They added features such as rivers, lakes, and crevices. Once the caves were created, students gave five locations in the cave special names similar to the ones they saw on the Web site. Each location had a linking symbol. One special location, the one incorporating the student's name, actually linked to a new page in Micro Worlds. Students took digital photographs of their cave drawings completed in the art class. They placed these photos on a new page in Micro Worlds, and this was the destination for the special location's link. On a third page, students wrote short stories about how their caves were "discovered" and added special biographical information about the "finder finder, in law. Ordinarily the finder of lost property is entitled to retain it against anyone except the owner. It is larceny, however, for the finder to keep the property if he knows or can easily determine who owns it. " (the student). This page was also a destination link from the original page. Finally, the students went to the Web site (www.wordreference.com) to find a French name for their completed cave. They were to look at their caves and determine what they most closely resembled (a fish? a bird? a hippo?). They found the French translation for the chosen word and gave the cave its name. The Art Project We talked about why and how ancient peoples painted the walls of caves as they did. No one knows the real answer--was it magic, religion, or just the hunt? Students gently crumpled crum·ple v. crum·pled, crum·pling, crum·ples v.tr. 1. To crush together or press into wrinkles; rumple. 2. To cause to collapse. v.intr. 1. a large piece of 22 x 28" (56 x 71 cm) heavy paper (Kraft or drawing paper) into a ball two times, then smoothed it flat to give it a "rocky" appearance. On this surface each student drew at least two prehistoric creatures in a simple scene. Reproductions and books of prehistoric creatures guided students to draw an accurate picture of the animals. Once the drawing was completed, students went over their pencil lines with willow charcoal, a material similar to what cave artists might have used. During the second session, students used natural dyes natural dye n. A dye obtained from animals or plants. to add color to their cave paintings. We used blueberries, beets, spinach spinach, annual plant (Spinacia oleracea) of the family Chenopodiaceae (goosefoot family), probably of Persian origin and known to have been introduced into Europe in the 15th cent. , and terra cotta cot·ta n. pl. cot·tae or cot·tas A short surplice. [Medieval Latin, of Germanic origin.] clay mixed with water, but they were also allowed to try other kinds of natural dyes. Each student left his/her signature with a handprint hand·print n. An outline or indentation left by a hand. . When both projects were finished the cave paintings were displayed with the cave Web site printouts in the school hall--our own walk back into time. NATIONAL STANDARD Students understand the visual arts visual arts npl → artes fpl plásticas visual arts npl → arts mpl plastiques visual arts npl → in relation to history and culture and understand technological communication and resource tools. WEB LINKS www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en www.wordreference.com Denise Ford and Jeanne Conway taught this lesson at Assumption School in St. Louis, Missouri. JeConway631@aol.com and dford@assumptionst1.edu |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion