Second grade artists are finishing up one of their Middle East cultural focus projects. This project had lots and lots of steps, and my second graders were real troopers, plugging away at each part of the project!
We began with an introduction to Egypt and had lots of fun talking about pyramids. Then we drew and colored in a beautiful little pyramid landscape.
Next came a review of Middle Eastern ceramic tiles – this part of the project tied in to our clay project, yet to be revealed! We stamped the outside of our landscape with designs and colored the outside with many shades of blue crayon.
Adding the doors 
And finally – the most fun part – DOORS that OPEN! We decorated the doors so they looked “ancient” – my second grader’s words, not mine, aren’t they just so smart?! And after some painting and folding and gluing – ta daaa! A desert landscape is revealed behind the fancy ancient doors! Or, as my second graders like to say….the magical phrase: Open Sesame!
doors closed 
doors open 
Wow! Your students must have loved making the project. The stamps in the background look interesting – did you make them yourself?
Hi Rina – they did love this project – opening the doors is still big fun for them. The stamps came from SAX Arts and Crafts.
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HI,
Could you give me an idea how you had the kids make the barn drawings? I live in Vermont and my students see lot of barns in our farming community.
Hi Ruth – let’s see…we did these barn drawings together, step by step. We drew a small practice barn together in pencil first. We talked about filling up the space, since this was an 18×24 piece of paper. They worked directly on the paper, drawing with a q-tip dipped in tempera paint. 1) they drew a big square, then a triangle on top. 2) roof lines and side bottom of barn came next – we talked about making these lines parallel. Then the back part of the barn and roof. It really helped the kids to do a practice drawing first so they could get the hang of this part. 3) The painting was done over several class periods – first the sky, clouds, and snowy ground; next the barn itself and the trees. I did it this way to keep the colors from getting too mushy on the barn, and my classes were not quite long enough to do all the painting at once. 4) final step – outlining our black lines with a big black oil pastel to bring back the lines that were painted over. Hope that helps, Ruth!