Take Off

View the landscape from a new perspective, using your imagination to creatively paint objects as they would appear from a distance.

• 1.

  Go outside to look at the way telephone poles or trees recede into the distance. Discuss the visual effects of distance on objects. If possible, lie on the ground and look up. Climb a tower and look down. How does your perspective change?

• 2.

  Imagine yourself as an ant. What would the world look like to you? Imagine yourself next as a bird. Would houses and trees seem large or small to you from the sky?

• 3.

  Draw a picture of a landscape you see as either a bird or an ant. Remember, objects closest to you look larger than objects that are far away.

• 4.

  Cover a table with recycled newspaper. Use Crayola® Washable Kid's Paint and Paint Brushes to paint your imagined landscape. Dry flat.

• 5.

  Add outlines and details with Crayola Markers.

Benefits

• Children gain an understanding of visual perspective, recognizing that things in the distance appear to be smaller than things that are close.
• Children paint landscapes from the perspective of a bird in the air or a small creature on earth.
• Students reflect their understanding of simple proportions in their drawings.

Adaptations

• Draw several different views from the same perspective, as if you were turning your head or using a panoramic camera.
• Imagine the scene you painted from the opposite point of view. If you painted a bird's eye view, consider an ant's eye view of the same place. Or draw the view from an airplane window, underground, or the moon.
• Find out what colors (if any) birds and ants see, and how well they distinguish objects. Make your drawing a reflection of the animal's physical capacities.