Cave Art

Cave Art

I did this unit several years ago. We went to the official website of the Cave of Lascaux. You can navigate through the cave and check out the cave art together, so cool!  Here is the website if you are interested;  http://www.lascaux.culture.fr/?lng=en#/fr/02_00.xml.

 Kinder and 1st grade did the painted hand prints you see above.  They used chalk pastel to add symbols, lines and embellishments.  They were required to pair colors to make them stand out.

 The lesson above was done with 2nd and 3rd grade.  I used the Rolyco cave art kit, at the time it was sponges, they are now stencils.  I haven't used those yet, so curious to see if they will be as easy to use as the stamps...we will see.  For this, we used a heavy grade paper I got from Lowe's, it was very thick and tore nicely.  That was the first step, tear edges of the paper and we used a watered down black or gray to paint the edges, just to give it that old feel.  Then students stamped with various colors, red, purple white, black, and brown with the cave art stamps.  Day two they added chalk pastel detailing.

This was a scratch art that I did with my 4th and 5th graders.  It is actually a tar paper also found at Lowe's or Home Depot, from the roofing department.  I believe one roll was enough for all 200 plus kids.  I love this project, but plan for significant prep time and cross your fingers for good weather.  You will need 8-10 cans of spray paint to get good coverage.  Do yourself a favor, get the spray paint with the wide button.  The first time I did this project I did not, and I had blisters on just about every finger tip (ouch!!).  This may sound a bit scary, but students actually scratch with nails, BIG NAILS!  I have done this lesson several times, not with just cave art, over the years.  You just have to make if very clear of your expectations, one wrong move and they don't get to continue.  Instead they get plain white paper and a pencil.  Not once did I have to do more than just make that threat.  They don't want to be "the one" who misses out on getting to use a nail to make their masterpiece!!