Impressionist Landscape- First Grade

This was a great project that students really enjoyed.  We talked about various lines and used three lines to set up the foreground, middle ground and background.  We use two diagonals and one straight line across the paper.  The students were then instructed to color in each section with chalk pastel using only warm or cool colors.  After viewing different Impressionist landscapes, students used cake tempera paint to make dots on their paper, choosing colors that correlate to their color scheme.  I cut three different sizes of trees and the students created the element of space by gluing the big trees further down on the paper and the small tree toward the top of the paper.  In their classroom they were talking about stories of land from different places for Core Knowledge so, we talked about the ways in which a landscape picture can tell a story using Impressionist paintings (which is a visual art standard for Core Knowledge first grade).