Friday, January 25, 2013

Art: Northern Lights

Today's art is a chalk version of the Northern Lights. First, we looked up some pictures of the real Northern Lights and discussed the reason they happen/where they are most common. Here are a couple of my favorite pictures:

   
 (images from google images)

Now, onto making our own Northern Lights! Each student was given a 9x12 inch paper (the color doesn't matter for this paper, whatever you have a lot of!). This is our work/scratch paper and will be recycled later. We drew a wavy line that will become the snow covered hills on our finished product. Label the top "Top" and the bottom "Bottom". This sounds silly, but they can get confusing pretty easily once you get started. 


The students the students then get a light blue 9x12 inch paper. This paper will be their final product paper. Students take they "Top" paper and lay it on top of the blue paper. Use white chalk along the edge of the non-blue paper. Be sure to make a thick line of white. Once satisfied with your chalk, use a tissue to drag the white down onto the blue paper. You will start to see the snow covered hills!


Next is to create the Northern Lights above your snowy hills. Take the "Top" piece off and lay the "Bottom" piece on the bottom of your blue paper. It should line up to exactly cover the snowy hills. (this is there non-labeled papers can get confused) Students then use colored chalk to make the Northern Lights. They are made in the same way the snowy hills are, except that you drag the tissue up! I like to give my students plenty of colors to choose from so they can make their Northern Lights more individualized.


Here are some finished products:




 

2 comments:

  1. These pictures are beautiful. I lived in Northern Manitoba teaching on a native reserve for two years, and while there, I saw the Northern lights for the first time! However, there the only visible colour was green and it was a squiggle across the sky which kept moving, it was beautiful. I wish my camera could have captured it, but my little point and shoot wasn't powerful enough. Instead, I bought a piece of local art to remember the sky.

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    1. That's awesome! I hope to see the Northern Lights in person some day.

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