Take a Look at Nature With Landscape Lesson Plans
Let local nature inspire original art with these landscape lesson plans.
By Alison Panik
A landscape is all of the visual features of an area of land. Landscapes are all around children. They pass landscapes on their school buses, in their family cars, and on trains going in and out of the city. Exploring the topic of landscape can help students become more aware of the world zooming past their windows as they go from place to place. By exploring local landscapes, teachers can help to develop a sense of place in their students, starting with the landscapes that can be viewed around the school.
Many artists have been captivated by landscapes and have used their talents to represent different parts of the world and the imagination through landscape painting. Introduce landscapes by sharing the works of Thomas Cole, Asher Durand, and George Inness with students. Invite them to visually explore each painting (such as Inness’s Lake Albano, Sunset) asking them “What is going on in this picture?” Explore the question: “How does an artist create a landscape?” I like to do this in a comfortable carpeted area of my classroom, projecting the image on a wall. Students enjoy the art-in-the-dark experience and will often surprise me with new incites into familiar works.
A landscape lesson can turn into a field trip to a local natural area, or an overview of a topic such as plant life. It can also provide a way for students to use a combination of art materials to compose their works. In a lesson plan below students use watercolors, acrylic or tempera paints, and watercolor pencils to create different effects.
But landscapes provide more than just an opportunity to explore techniques. There are many ways to connect landscape studies to regular classroom studies of local history, of weather and clouds, and of regional natural and conservation areas. Check in with classroom teachers to find ways to connect with what students are studying in an artful way.
Landscape Lesson Plans:
Explore local landscapes with grades three and up, taking along art materials to capture nature from a variety of perspectives. Techniques include use of watercolors for sky and water, acrylic or tempera paints for middle and foreground, and watercolor pencils for details.
Add to this lesson artwork or photographs of landscapes in your community. Or, better yet, visit local natural areas with your students to help them develop a sense of place. This lesson offers an interesting technique for incorporating textures into landscape artwork. If possible, invite students to create local landscape art then capture textures from that environment in their artwork.
Team with a classroom teacher, local naturalist, or conservation center staff to provide the local plant information necessary to complete this exciting adventure taking a close-up view of the local natural landscape.
Introduce warm and cool color schemes while designing eye-catching landscape scenes of sky and layers of land. I especially like the element of choice in this art activity. Each child’s landscape will be completely unique. Be sure to use construction paper crayons with this lesson for the best show of color.
Focused on introducing students to the textures and patterns in the world around them, this lesson would be even more relevant following a walk around the local community to view textures and patterns of buildings along streets, walls, cars, trees, hills in the distance. A trip into the city or into the countryside, any type of experience with a local environment can be an inspiring idea to get this lesson started. I especially like the effect of painting each landscape first in black and white. Adding color only after reflecting on the first stage of the artwork brings an attention to detail, particularly to color choice.