Rainy Day Cityscapes

5th Graders learned about Value and Symmetry while creating these cityscapes. I found this lesson on incredibleart.org, one of my favorite sites to find great lesson plan ideas!! But I tweaked it a bit, the original lesson can be found at this link: http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/elem/elem41.html.

First students designed a cityscape on half their papers, then selected one color with all of its different values, from water soluble oil pastels. Then selected its complementary color and that was used for the sky. They reflected their cityscape simply on the bottom and with a wet brush blurred the image so it looks as though the city is being reflected in the water. Or as if the color washed from the buildings onto the sidewalk after a rainy day. Enjoy!