The fourth grade Mayan pyramid project was my most original idea. I had them working for weeks on different stages of this project. They had to use three-dimensional construction techniques for the pyramids. They needed to research, design, learn drawing, and painting.
We studied all about the ancient Mayans, where they lived, how they built the grand cities, temples, pyramids, and why. I have traveled in Guatemala and made use of my own photos and research.
We also did a number of drawing lessons on tropical birds, reptiles, jaguar, and plant life. The pyramids were made out of foam, cut, glued and painted to look like stone. A tropical forest background was drawn on good quality heavy illustration board, then painted with bright watercolors. We had a lot of watercolor lesson time too.
I give lots of credit to all the online and published art education resources that I have used this past year.
And, finally this project that I made with the second grade was successful in that they had a fabulously fun time. I may not teach it quite this way again because it was too much work for me. The students should be the ones doing all the assembly and learning-not the other way around!
The class had been reading the Odyssey and studying all about ancient Greece. So this is supposed to be a Greek warship, it is about 15 inches long. I had to cut out the heavy cardboard and use a hot glue gun to assemble the ships for them. They did paint the sail on canvas, tie the ropes, make shields, paint the hull, and put in the oars themselves.
