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B. Drama / D. Visual Arts · Drama and Visual Arts

Visual Arts: Making Art About My Community and Nature

D1.1 D1.2 D1.4 D2.1 D2.2 D2.4About 45 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can make 2D and 3D art about activities in my community or things I notice in nature.
  • I can plan a picture that tells a story, using elements and principles of design.
  • I can choose tools, materials and techniques for a design challenge.
  • I can share my feelings and ideas about art works.
  • I can keep a portfolio and name my strengths, interests and next steps as an artist.

Words to know

community
The people and places around you: your neighbourhood, school, town or city.
narrative art
Art that tells a story.
composition
How an artist arranges everything in an art work.
sculpture
3D art you can walk around or hold.
portfolio
A folder or box where an artist keeps their art works to look back at and see how they've grown.
design challenge
An art problem to solve, like "Make a sculpture of an animal using only recycled materials."

Look around you!

What happens in your community? A Saturday farmers' market. Kids playing road hockey. A Canada Day parade. Leaves falling in the park. Geese flying south.

Artists get ideas from what they see and do in their community and in nature. Today you will be that kind of artist!

Canada geese flying in a long line over a park full of red, orange and yellow autumn trees, with a lake and a city skyline in the distance.
Geese flying south over a park in the fall, with the city behind. Scenes like this, from your own community and nature, are great ideas for art. AI-generated image

Artists who show community and nature

  • Maud Lewis was a painter from Nova Scotia. She painted bright, cheerful pictures of her community: oxen pulling sleighs in the snow, cats, flowers, boats in the harbour.
  • Andy Goldsworthy is an artist from Britain who makes sculptures outdoors from nature: leaves arranged in colourful patterns, stones stacked into shapes, even sculptures of ice. Many of them only last a short time before nature changes them.
  • Kenojuak Ashevak, an Inuk artist from Kinngait, Nunavut, made prints of the birds and animals she knew. (You met her in Grade 1!)

Plan a story in a picture

Narrative art tells a story. Before you start, plan your composition:

  1. What is the story? (Who? Where? What is happening?)
  2. What is most important? Make it big or put it near the middle.
  3. Which elements of design will help? Lines for motion, colours and tints for the feeling, texture, overlapping for depth.
  4. Which principle of design? Use repetition and rhythm to move the viewer's eye. You can still use contrast from Grade 1 to make the important part stand out.
Apple Day with GrandmaDiagonal roof linesRepeated apples =rhythmHana and Grandma: big,in the middleHana overlapsthe stall, so shelooks closer
A planning sketch for Hana's market picture. The most important part is big and in the middle, overlapping shows depth, and the repeated apples and stripes give the picture rhythm.
2D (flat) art3D art (sculpture)
drawing with crayons or pencilplaydough or clay animals
paintinga sculpture made from recycled boxes and tubes
a collage of paper and fabrica nature sculpture of stones, sticks and leaves
a print made with stampsa model of your street
Ideas for 2D and 3D art
widthheight2D: flatwidthheightdepth3D: you can walk around it
2D art is flat: it has width and height, like a drawing. 3D art (a sculpture) also has depth, so you can look at it from all sides.
Worked example

Example: Planning a narrative picture

Hana wants to make a picture about her family's trip to the farmers' market in the fall.

  1. Story: Hana and her grandmother buying apples at a busy market stall.
  2. Most important: Hana and her grandmother, drawn big in the middle, overlapping the stalls behind them to show depth.
  3. Elements: diagonal lines for the stall roofs; warm colours for apples and pumpkins; drawn texture for the woven baskets (criss-cross lines).
  4. Principle (repetition and rhythm): a regular pattern of striped awnings, and rows of apples so your eyes move along the stall.
  5. Title: Apple Day with Grandma.

Hana planned a narrative picture with a clear story, chose elements (line, colour, texture, space) and used repetition and rhythm in her composition.

Worked example

Example: Solving a design challenge in 3D

Design challenge: Make a sculpture of an animal you've seen in nature, using recycled materials.

  1. Observe: Leo remembers the Canada geese at the pond.
  2. Choose materials: a small box for the body, a paper towel tube for the neck, cardboard for wings, black and white paper.
  3. Choose techniques: cut, fold, glue and tape. Paint the body brown with a tint of brown for the chest.
  4. Test and fix: the neck keeps falling over. Leo adds tape around the bottom and a tiny ball of playdough inside for weight.
  5. Finish: he adds a regular pattern of feather lines on the wings.

Leo observed nature, picked materials and techniques, solved a problem, and made a 3D sculpture.

Just for fun

Artist Andy Goldsworthy has made sculptures out of ice. Imagine an art work you have to finish before it melts... and you can't put it in your portfolio!

Talking about art

Remember I see, I think, I feel, I wonder from Grade 1? This year, add how the artist did it:

  • "I feel calm because the artist used horizontal lines and light blue tints."
  • "My eyes move across the picture because the geese repeat."

Talk about your own art the same way!

My art portfolio

A portfolio is where an artist keeps their work. Put each art work in a folder or box with the date on the back. Every few weeks, look through it and ask:

  • Strength: What am I good at? ("I'm good at mixing tints.")
  • Interest: What do I love to make? ("I love making animal sculptures.")
  • Area for improvement / next step: What do I want to get better at? ("I want to try overlapping more.")
Hands-on activity

Community and nature art project

You need: your choice of paper, crayons, paint, recycled boxes and tubes, glue, tape, playdough, or natural things you collect outside (leaves, sticks, pinecones, small stones).

  1. Take a short walk in your neighbourhood or a park. Notice one activity (people skating, a garbage truck, kids at the playground) or one thing in nature (a tree, birds, the sky at sunset).
  2. Choose: 2D (a picture) or 3D (a sculpture). Or do both!
  3. Plan your composition: story, most important part, elements, and repetition and rhythm.
  4. Make it. If something doesn't work, try a new technique!
  5. Give it a title. Tell your family about it using "I see, I think, I feel, I wonder" and because.
  6. Put it in your portfolio with the date. Write or say one strength and one next step.

Nature sculpture tip: Like Andy Goldsworthy, arrange leaves or stones outside in a pattern. Take a photo, because nature will change it!

Your turn

1

Name one activity in your community you could make art about.

2

What is narrative art?

3

Name one 2D and one 3D way to make art.

4

What did Maud Lewis paint?

5

Finish this sentence about an art work: "I feel ____ because the artist used ____."

6

What is a portfolio?

7

Name one strength you have as an artist.

More practice: warm-up

1

Is a playdough moose 2D or 3D?

2

Is a crayon drawing 2D or 3D?

3

What does composition mean?

4

Name something in nature you could make art about.

5

What does Andy Goldsworthy use to make his sculptures?

More practice: on your own

1

Plan a picture about a snow day at the park. What is the most important part? How will you make it stand out?

2

How could you use repetition and rhythm in a picture of a parade?

3

Design challenge: make a bird's nest sculpture. What materials and techniques would you use?

4

Look at one of your old drawings. Name one thing you do better now.

5

Tell why a portfolio needs dates on the art works.

Challenge

1

Plan a narrative art work about something your family does together. List the story, two elements of design, and how you'll use repetition and rhythm.

2

Your sculpture keeps falling over. Name two ways you could solve the problem.

3

Write a short note for your portfolio: one strength, one interest and one next step.

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

Which is 3D art?

2.

Narrative art ___.

3.

Maud Lewis painted bright pictures of her community in ___.

4.

A portfolio is ___.

5.

Which sentence explains how an artist created a feeling?

6.

Which is an area for improvement?

7.

What is the Grade 2 principle of design you can use to move a viewer's eye?

For parents and teachers

Big idea: Grade 2 students create 2D and 3D art inspired by activities in their community or observations of nature (D1.1), plan narrative art or art on a theme using principles of design (D1.2), use a variety of tools, materials and techniques for design challenges (D1.4), express feelings and ideas about art (D2.1), explain how elements and principles communicate meaning (D2.2), and identify and document their strengths, interests and areas for improvement (D2.4).

How to help:

  • Keep a simple portfolio: a folder or a large envelope. Date each piece.
  • Every month, look through it together and celebrate growth.
  • Ask "why" questions: "Why did you choose blue there?"
  • Visit free community art: murals, public sculptures, library displays, local galleries.

Common difficulties:

  • Stuck for ideas. Take a 5-minute "idea walk" and pick one thing you both noticed.
  • "It's ruined!" Treat mistakes as design challenges. Many artists change their plans part-way.
  • Next steps that are too big ("draw better"). Help make them specific: "draw hands with five fingers".