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Simple ways to teach landscapes to children of any age in art class.
When teaching children about any art subject, it is important to simplify the concept into small, palatable parts that are easy to comprehend. One way to do this is to break down different elements and terms into easy to manage segments using vocabulary and examples within the student's experience. Below are some simple ways to break down the elements of a landscape.Landscape
Often I will ask my students, "What do you think a landscape is?" Unless the students have had previous art experience, they often give me blank stares and incorrect guesses. Then I ask, "What is land?" Hands shoot up, and students give me an example of land and the outdoors. Then I ask again, "What is a landscape?" Now that the correlation has been made between land and landscape, the students will understand that a landscape is a depiction of an outdoor scene.
Foreground, Background, and Middle Ground
I choose three students from the class and have them stand one behind the other from tallest to shortest. The farther apart they can stand, the better. I point out that the student standing in the back is the background (ex. a mountain, a faraway tree). The student in the middle is the middle ground, and the child standing in the front is the foreground. I point to each child in the row and have the class answer together "Background, foreground, or middle ground." Then we discuss what elements of our landscape would be in the background, foreground, or middle ground.
Basic Perspective
I ask the students to hold their hands close to their face and point out that the hand looks quite large. Then I have them hold their hand as far away as they can. The hand looks smaller. As a simple explanation of perspective, I tell my students that the closer an object is, the larger it appears and the farther it is, the smaller it appears. Then we discuss how this applies to our landscapes. A good example is how a faraway mountain seems so much smaller than a rock that is in the foreground.
Atmosphere
Young students do not always understand the concept of blending colors together. However, I do mention to them that the farther away an object is, the more muted the colors are since the atmosphere provides a sort of haze. We might then talk about how weather and sunlight would affect the color palette. Then we discuss various ways of blending colors, whether using acrylics, oil pastels, watercolor, or any other medium.
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