1st Grade- Sky Tree

We begin this lesson by reading the book Sky Tree. After reading the book we talk about landscapes and our project will be a landscape because it is a picture of outside.
All students then recieve a 18 x 12" piece of white paper and we draw a horizon line on it a little below the halfway point. We then start drawing the tree. I tell students that "trees are made up of Y's and V's" so we draw a big letter Y above the horizon line. We then add little Y's for the branches and V's at the tips for smaller branches. As of this point, our tree is a stick tree, but then we fatten it up with a brown crayon.
Next, we take natural leaves, place them under our paper, and rub the leaf to create a leaf texture rubbing. We do this in the branches and on the grass. Lastly, students paint the sky and grass using tempera cakes.