Wilson School / Magical Trees / Fall 2012 / Gr2-5

 First we looked at the many different ways that artists have painted trees over the centuries.  We talked about whether the artist was working abstractly or realistically or somewhere in between.  We discussed which style of interpretation we liked best and why.  

We went outside and looked closely at the trees, we felt their textures and discovered hidden colors.  We traced the branches in the air with our fingers.  Then we made "contour" drawings of the tree; With our pencils we worked our way very slowly through the maze of branches, knowing that we did not have to draw every single branch but that we would carefully describe the branches we did choose to focus on.  (The children had already studied contour drawing in the class room the previous week.)

Once back inside the classroom the students made their realistic tree drawings magical through imaginative use of color and adding any other elements of nature they wanted to add.