The Eiffel Tower and The Sunflower

Recently, I visited Montmartre.  Montmartre was amazing.  We walked around the square.  I picked up the mini-masterpiece below for about $10.  My daughter and I just loved the sunflower that was a sun.  Have a look!

I decided to incorporate the Montmartre art into an art lesson for my 4th grade.  One of my 4th graders is obsessed with the Eiffel Tower.  I knew this lesson would be a hit with her!

Directions:

I talked a little about the Eiffel Tower and showed the pictures below.  I explained that the Eiffel Tower was in the middle of the city of Paris.  I told the kids that buildings were all around the Eiffel Tower.  Also, I explained that there was no green grass at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.  I told them that the area in front of the Eiffel Tower was dirt.  I explained that people were constantly on the area and there was no chance for grass to grow.  I showed them a picture of the Eiffel Tower at night when the lights are shining.  There are 20,000 lights on the Eiffel tower.  These are pretty big lights, folks.

Once I laid out the Eiffel Tower details, I had kids use a pencil and sketch the Eiffel Tower and the Sunflower.  They used the following steps to sketch the Eiffel Tower, only if they wanted to though.

Then, I had them add grass (Yeah, I told them to pretend) and flowers.  They drew a line to separate the land from the sky.

They outlined with oil pastel.

They painted with watercolor.

Have a look!

I missed part of pre-planning to be on the trip to France.  I hated to miss being reunited with my teacher friends, but I so feel like the trip set me on fire in my art teaching world.  I was inspired by everything I saw as we walked through the streets of Paris and its outskirts.  

Sometimes to grow, you gotta go...

Here's Rob doing a Bruce cover, "I'm on Fire".

1965