Art History and Cave Painting Activity

Let’s be real. When you think of art what do you think of? Maybe it’s old paintings like the Mona Lisa. Or bright paintings like Picasso. Or statues like David. Maybe it’s simply a coloring book and crayons or some bright, colored Play-Doh.

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There are so many ways to think of “art”. But, rarely, does anyone think of how art began…or where it began.

Drawings in a Cave

There is a fascinating story about some boys in France who accidentally discovered a cave full of drawings. Drawings so old that writing hadn’t been invented yet!

Let’s pause for a moment and read that again. WRITING HADN’T BEEN INVENTED. Can you imagine a world with no writing?! Yet, they were able to draw. How important these cave drawings must have been then!

This is the book we read:

Our Cave Drawings

After spending some time watching a video about the boys in France who discovered the cave paintings (I wanted to read a book but couldn’t get my hands on one!), we set out on an imaginary adventure to thousands of years ago.

I wish we’d had some type of big refrigerator box but it’s not like I buy a refrigerator everyday and have the box lying around. So, we made do with our cardboarded-up playset and had a cave painting adventure of our own.

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Darkness, paint, a small space, and a little cheat-sheet made for a fun art project.

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What We Learned

By then end of the lesson, he was able to:

• explain where some of the earliest paintings were found.
• create his own cave drawings.

He also now has a good understanding of many new vocabulary words such as:

• prehistoric
• ancient
• caves
• France
• Europe

My entire lesson plan and the lesson Read Aloud can be purchased here.

Here’s a little secret, though. Any Glue Sticks and Games blog subscribers receive these materials FREE in their inbox each week! So, snag your copy of this lesson and then sign up to get the rest of the year for free!

Other Great Resources

Here are some great resources that are not included in my Lesson Plan but that I felt were still worth mentioning. And I’m sure I’ll come back to these when we have space time throughout our week.

Videos

Books

Want More?

Check out all about the ENTIRE YEAR of art lessons here.

And don’t forget about music! Find out all about those year long plans here!

See You Soon!

Our cave painting activity is now complete but next week we’re going to learn just a bit more history. And we’re heading to Ancient Egypt to do it!

And then we’re going to start on a month long unit all about colors. Who doesn’t love colors?! We’ll paint, mix, experiment and read all about them.

Come join!