5th grade petroglyphs

5th graders looked at the petroglyphs adorning the Mesa Verde. We learned about the Native American's that inhabited the cliff dwellings here. We discussed how little is known about the people that lived here. Most of what we know about their existence comes from studying their artwork. The artwork (petroglyphs) are carvings made into the stones and stone walls. There was no written language, so they told stories with their symbols and drawings.  We are left to decode their artwork and try to figure out the story being told to us. 

After using a ruler and building a clay slab box to specific size requirements, we used sharp pencils to carve petroglyphs into the unfired, but dry, clay. Without using words, symbols only, our clay boxes tell our personal narratives. They "talk" about our families, our hobbies, our likes and dislikes.

3rd grade landscape paintings

Third graders looked at the landscapes of Claude Monet. Monet studied how light affected his landscapes. He even painted certain landscapes, like his haystack series, almost twenty different times. We created our black nd white landscape paintings using only black and white paint. We mixed tints and shades of grays. Our backgrounds have smaller, lighter trees, while the foreground has bigger, darker trees. We also added snow falling and snow on the branches of the trees.