Winter Trees

I totally borrowed this lesson from Deep Space Sparkle - she has great ideas there! I did this with 2nd - 5th and it worked for all ages. I offered them pink, purple, light blue, or dark blue paper choices. We talked about how each color reminds us of different times of the day and different kinds of weather. We discussed landscape characteristics - ground touches the sky, things far away are lighter and smaller than things up close (atmospheric perspective), and we talked about trees. Trees are widest at their trunks and get skinnier as they grow up. We painted this together - like a guided drawing but a guided painting instead. Lots of fun and only one day!
SUPPLIES: 9 x 12 construction paper, paint: white, light gray, dark gray, black.
STEP 1:
Paint in a horizon line (at least halfway up the paper) and fill the ground with snow. Practice using nice brushstrokes.
STEP 2:
Paint background trees first - use lightest gray, the trunks start on top of horizon line, take the trees off the edge of paper.
STEP 3:
Paint mid-ground trees - used dark gray, trunks start in middle of snow, trees can overlap the background and go off edge.
STEP 4:
Paint fore-ground trees - use black, start near bottom of paper, go off the edge at the top.
LAST:
Add fun stuff - show kids how to make dot snowflakes with paintbrush handle, make a snowman or woodland creature. The 4th & 5ths were very interested in fences.