Maps of Art

A spontaneous gap-filling lesson. These were created back near the start of the year, well before I'd started this blog. I took the photos when I revisited this 5/6 classroom more recently. This was not a regular whole class art lesson, but something for the early finishing students to enjoy, and slow them down! Freehand drawing a map can seem very daunting at first but with some coaxing and a quick demonstration on the board, these children soon took to the idea.

Maps are beautiful to look at, and I've often noticed students quietly engrossed as they thumb through an atlas. I try to impress upon the students that we are practicing art rather than cartography, so we don't need to be super accurate, fine detailed and exact. Instead we can focus on general shape and form, and especially colour — which I think makes many maps so attractive. It's also a subtle way to engage the students with geography and the world beyond their neighbourhood.

Representing Australia, Africa, Southeast Asia and South America, these were sketched in lead pencil and finished in either oil pastel or coloured pencil.