Collaborative Cave Painting

Created for Saturday Art with University of Cincinnati (Ages 9-10)

Lesson Summary:
In this project the students will each get to contribute to each other’s park of the final work. Students will look at cave paintings and try to create their own along a large piece of brown paper. The students will work collectively to come up with a story they want to tell and each student will come up with an image to contribute to that story.

Specific Objectives:
Students will:

Generate an idea for a story together.
Respect what other students have added to the overall piece.
Work collaboratively to show the story they have come up with.

Materials List: Sheet of brown paper large enough to cover a wall, Pastels (Brown, Black, Red, Other neutral tones)

Instructional Aides: Photos of cave paintings

Vocabulary: Cave Painting, storytelling

Procedure

Pre-class Preparation:

Hang brown paper on the wall.
Have containers laid out by the wall with the selected colors of pastels.
Have photos of cave paintings ready to share.

Motivation:

Have students come in and sit in front of the wall with the paper set up.
Talk about visual storytelling and how cave painting are used to tell stories and record history.
Show cave paintings, discuss what kinds of stories they might be telling.
Explain that they will be working together to create a cave painting as a group, trying to cover all the paper.

Art Activity:

Have students discuss what they want to tell a story about
Give them about 10 min to talk about what they want to be shown and how they want to show it.
Once students have decided on their story, they should divide up the work so each student is making as equal contribution as possible.
Show the students how to apply pastels to the paper as well as how to smear and blend to create different effects with their lines.
After demonstration give the students the rest of he time to work on their drawing, filling the wall as much as possible.
If they finish their part early they should see if any other students need help with their part of the story.
Start clean up about 10 min before end of work time.

Clean up:

Students should return their pastels to the containers
Wife down any surfaces other than the wall that may have gotten pastel on them.
Once clean up is done students can wash their hands, not before.

Reflection/Critique/Assessment:

With remaining time students should reflect on how well their final product tells their intended story, could someone 2000 or more years from now tell what is happening?

References:

Cathy. (02/06/2023) Cave Painting. Homeschool Lesson.
http://myfunnybunch.blogspot.com/2009/10/cave-painting.html