For the past month or so we've studied the traditional lives of the Kumeyaay Indians who are the original native people of San Diego county. Using what they learned in this unit, students  created wonderful, beautifully detailed collages that depict life in a traditional village. They also created an online resource all about the Kumeyaay's traditional lifestyle and traditions.

This week in art we created a piece of artwork called People Contours. I  emphasized drawing very slowly and drawing what you see, not what you think you see. During this lesson I introduced concepts such as foreground, middle ground, and background. Students learned about the illusion of depth created by drawing overlapping figures.  Students studied the models very carefully and drew contours without looking down at their paper...they were allowed to peek a few times but overall students concentrate on the subject and don't look at their papers when they are drawings. (Visit our photo website http://mrsmckelvey.shutterfly.com to see them all.)