Junior+Division

=**Junior Division Studio Activity **=

**Drawing/Printmaking: Cave Art for the 21st Century**
This assignment for Grade 5 is a stencil print using chalk pastel on kraft paper to simulate a cave painting, like ones found in Lascaux, France, and at Cueva de las Manos (Cave of the Hands) in the province of Santa Cruz, Argentina. The kraft paper was crumpled and edges torn to give a weathered effect. To develop their work, students select a complementary colour scheme, and experiment with positive and negative shapes to fill the surface with hands.

Students could be introduced to prehistoric art with these suggested key questions from the lesson, Cave Art: Discovering Prehistoric Humans through Pictures at EdSitement: • How do people express ideas through art? • Why do people use images to tell stories and to communicate? • How has art been used throughout history to tell stories or to show us what people in other times and places considered important?

Students could take a virtual tour of the Cave of Lascaux, the site of some of the earliest known art created by humans. The Cave of Lascaux, discovered by four teenagers in 1940, is a series of spaces which depicts more than 600 animals, geometric symbols, and a lone human figure. Students could be asked about the challenges Paleolithic humans might have overcome in order to create these images on on cave walls and ceilings: pitch darkness, irregular rock surface, steepness and height, and so on. In spite of these obstacles, why might early humans have persisted and been driven to create these images that have survived more than 17,000 years?

This art work echoes the negative (stenciled) and positive hand prints made by indigenous inhabitants in Cueva de las Manos some 9,000 years ago. In addition to the hands, the Cueva de las Manos images include depictions of human beings, animals, geometric shapes, zigzag patterns, representations of the sun, and hunting scenes. This art activity could be extended to allow students to include images of their 'natural world': what images and symbols would they leave for archaeologists to discover 9,000 years from now? Sports equipment? Pets? iPods?

This assignment would work well for a group co-operative mural. Students could work together on a 'class cave painting', or each student could be asked to trace and cut out a hand stencil from bristol board. All the hand stencils would be made available for students working in small groups to pick and choose.

Selected expectations: Grade 5

ELEMENTS OF DESIGN • shape and form: symmetrical and asymmetrical shapes and forms in font and image; positive and negative shapes that occur in the environment; convex, concave, non-objective shapes • colour: complementary colours, hue, intensity • texture: textures created with a variety of tools, materials, and techniques; patterning

D1.1 create two- and three-dimensional art works that express feelings and ideas inspired by their own and others' points of view D1.2 demonstrate an understanding of composition, using selected principles of design to create narrative art works or art works on a theme or topic D1.3 use elements of design in art works to communicate ideas, messages, and understandings D1.4 use a variety of materials, tools, and techniques to determine solutions to design challenges --- D2.1 interpret a variety of art works and identify the feelings, issues, themes, and social concerns that they convey D2.3 demonstrate an understanding of how to read and interpret signs, symbols, and style in art works --- D3.1 describe how forms and styles of visual and media arts represent various messages and contexts in the past and present D3.2 demonstrate an awareness of ways in which visual arts reflect the beliefs and traditions of a variety of peoples and of people in different times and places **//Next Page → //**