Where have all the children gone?

Where are the kids? Wait... I think I see one!


Welcome to the caves! My 4th graders have learned about Lascaux, and are now doing their artwork in art room caves. The lights are off, we have flashlights for torches, and a tape of nature sounds with thunderstorms, coyotes howling, birds singing, and wind blowing outside. What an honor it is to be able to sit on the floor under the table!

Some kids choose private caves,

and others prefer to work together.


Oh - and what are they doing? They are using vine charcoal and/or charcoal pencils, and selecting what animals to draw on their chunk of cave wall rock, practicing on newsprint paper first. In next art class, they will be back in the caves, and when done with the charcoal, they will be PAINTING the images on the rock with earthy colors.

This hunk of cave wall, incidently, was made from that shredded paper mix I posted a week or so ago. The kids squished and squashed it, breaking down the paper fibers, and in some cases added some brown or black paint to tint the rock. (You'll see these when the artwork is done.) After squishing it for a while, they "patty-caked" it into a flat rock, and inserted a paper-clip to hang it when dry. Now they are as hard as a real rock!!