Quick! Tell Three Facts About Leonardo daVinci!

Do you know three interesting facts about Leonardo daVinci?  I’ll bet a Georgetown third grade artist can help you out!  They recently learned all about the great artist daVinci; not only did he paint the famous Mona Lisa, but he was a sculptor, inventor, musician, and mathematician.  Students examined a Mona Lisa print and discovered how daVinci was able to draw her eyes so that she seems to follow you across the room.

Third grade artists created their own Mona Lisa portraits, surrounding their portraits with drawings of inventions and notes just as Leonardo daVinci might have done.

One of my favorite parts of this project are the detailed inventions and notes!

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See more Mona Lisa portraits at our on-line gallery ARTSONIA!

I CAN Goals:

I can tell three facts about Leonardo daVinci.

I can draw a realistic portrait of the Mona Lisa.

I can show how to draw the famous Mona Lisa eyes.

 

Mona Lisa Gets All Gussied Up

Third grade artists have been learning about the art the famous Leonardo DaVinci.  DaVinci is part of our third grade curriculum, and we’ve done many projects based on DaVinci in the past…see them here.   And here!  And even here!

This year we prettied up our Mona Lisa project, adding a crown and jewels.  And…ask a third grader if you want to learn the secret of those mysterious Mona Lisa eyes that seem to follow you everywhere!

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Mona Lisa Triptych

Third grade artists have been learning about Leonardo daVinci and his famous Mona Lisa painting.  They were excited to learn daVinci’s trick of drawing eyes that seem to follow you around the room, and brainstormed lots of interesting ideas about what Mona Lisa might have been thinking about as she smiled mysteriously while her portrait was being painted.

They created their own Mona Lisa drawings in a triptych – a work of art that is divided into three sections – and wrote their Mona Lisa thoughts on the outside of the triptych.

    

Third Grade Mona Lisas

My third graders have been enjoying learning about the most famous painting in the world, Leonardo DaVinci’s Mona Lisa.  I’ve done many different versions of Mona Lisa in past years, including Mini Monas, Cat Monas, and even Giant Monas.  We’ve also imagined what Mona Lisa was thinking about and included her thoughts with our artwork.

This year’s Mona Lisa project was inspired by two things – the donation of a beautiful pile of small boxes, and an interesting project that I saw on artist Kim Welling’s blog – sweet little  panorama boxes.

Here are our fun little Mona Lisa boxes.

Our inspiration – lovely gold jewelry boxes

Many of my students planned to hang their Mona Lisa masterpieces on their Christmas trees!

 

Mini Monas

First we did the GIANT Mona Lisa in 5th grade….now it’s time for the Mini Monas in 3rd grade!  Our 3rd graders learn about Leonardo DaVinci as part of their art curriculum.  They are always intrigued to learn about the world’s most famous portrait, “Mona Lisa”.  We talk about her famous smile and how Leonardo invited musicians and jesters to his studio to entertain and amuse Lisa Giocondo as she posed for him.  And those eyes….we take a gallery walk by a Mona Lisa poster and watch her eyes follow us as we move….and then we learn Leonardo’s trick to drawing the eyes in a special way so they appear to follow us across the room.

A donated box of matboard ovals and squares inspired this Mona Lisa pendant project- the results are pretty fabulous.

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The goodie box of mat board cut outs – inspiration awaits!

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Adding the brass fastener, yarn, and beads

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Beautiful Mini Mona Lisa Pendants!

Really, Really Large Mona Lisas!

Fifth grade artists have been learning about the work of American artist Chuck Close.  They were interested to see the way C lose created his realistic portraits by painting colors and shapes in small grids or squares.  Fifth graders used a grid technique to create their own portrait of Davinci’s famous Mona Lisa, enlarging a small photograph to a wall-sized portrait rendered in oil pastels.  Each student created a piece of the larger picture, and they had a blast assembling their large portrait and putting their Mona Lisa puzzle back together!

Mona Lisa

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Mona Lisa