Prehistoric Cave Art with 3rd Grade

Third Grade Zilker Artists are learning all about Prehistoric Cave Art!  We looked closely at several photos of the unbelievably beautiful cave paintings in Lascaux Cave, located in France. Students practiced drawing four different animals that were alive 50,000 years ago when the cave paintings were created, including bison, bears, deer, cows, and horses.

Students added implied texture by rubbing crayons on top of a texture plate to simulate the rough cave walls.  Then we crinkled our papers to add actual or real texture too.

Last, students added prehistoric symbols around their animals with a charcoal stick, similar to what the ancient human used: a burnt stick.

Check out every one's finished cave art on Artsonia, our online student art museum, by cutting and pasting the following link into your browser window: 
   http://www.artsonia.com/museum/gallery.asp?project=990231

Third Grade Prehistoric Cave Art

 Third Grade students are learning about Prehistoric Cave Art.  We looked specifically at the Lascaux Cave in France.  We saw parts of a video about the cave, read a book, and looked at still photos of the cave art to study which animals the prehistoric people chose to draw. We talked about how the people mixed paint and what tools they used to paint or draw on the cave walls.

Next, we practiced drawing four different animals in the prehistoric style.  Students added natural colors like in the cave art: browns, tans, blacks, and whites.  Student chose their best idea and cut it out to add to a textured background.

The backgrounds were made by adding texture through a texture rubbing.  This texture can be seen, but not really felt, so it is an implied texture.  Students then created an real texture that could be both seen and felt by carefully crunching the paper to crinkle it.  Last, students used charcoal sticks to draw ancient cave symbols around their animals.  Students were excited about using a material like the Prehistoric artists did!

Third Grade Cave Art

Third Grade Zilker artists just finished studying Prehistoric Cave Art.  We watched video of the famous Lascaux  cave in France, and were mesmerized by the huge paintings of animals made by people thousands of years ago. We practiced drawing some of the animals that these ancient artists first recorded: bison, deer, horses, bears, and cows.   Students choose their best drawing and carefully cut it out, adding it to a background that they first added implied texture to with texture rubbing plates and actual texture from crumpling the paper.  As a final touch, students added some prehistoric symbols and pictographs that were also discovered on the walls of the Lascaux cave.  Look for these to be displayed in the hallway in January!