Lighting Up our City with 3-D Skylines

Ally, Grade 3

Paloma was the first one finished!

Small foam cubes were used as "spacers" between the layers.

Ian, Grade 3

Ayden, Grade 3

This year, we used oil pastels rather than gel pens.  I like this option best because they can really mix colors.

Tamia, Grade 3

Adding the Ferris Wheel to Navy Pier!

The third graders are learning all about Chicago in Social Studies.  In art, we have been learning about some Chicago landmarks like Cloud Gate (aka "the Bean") Navy Pier, The Watertower, and our famous skyscrapers.  Students brought the city to life in this project, turning their 2-D drawings into a 3-D scene.  They learned about relief sculptures, mixing colors with oil pastels, background/foreground, finding lines in compositions, and they know some facts about the architecture of Chicago!  One student even researched at home to find out what the "Diamond Building" is called... They did some writing about their favorite building when they were finished.  I love this project, and have done it twice now.  This time we switched to using oil pastels, and I liked it much better than the gel pens we used before.  They are much more colorful, and students were talking about color choice, making sure to not mix warm and cool and considering contrast, as they worked rather than fighting over the shiny pens.  These are on Artsonia and also on display in the Multi-Purpose room at Prescott.