2nd and 3rd Grade Northern Lights Landscapes

2nd and 3rd grade have been super busy this year and recently finished more beautiful projects. We learned about the Aurora Borealis (The Northern Lights) and created Alaskan landscapes. We looked at pictures and videos of the auroras and noticed the colors, shapes and movement. We used chalk pastels to create our own versions on black paper. 

Here is a few pictures of the process. 

We focused on making long, wavy, horizontal lines. The students had to choose 4 colors plus white and were encouraged to keep their designs simple. 

After drawing the lines with chalk we used a finger to blend the colors to make them seem like they were moving like the auroras we saw in a video. 

The next class period we made mountains for our landscapes. We looked at how artists often include colors when painting snow. We used a wet on wet technique to add a touch of color to the mountains. We also learned about sillohettes and created a tree line sillohette from black paper. 

On the third day of the project we added some finishing touches with pastel the glued the mountains and the trees to the black paper. 

The student's hard work resulted in some stunning winter landscapes. 

These turned out amazing! The chalk pastel really stands out on the black paper.