Grade 3 students were learning about volcanoes in their Science unit so we made illustrations of them in Art. We talked about some of the more famous volcanic eruptions such as Vesuvius (Pompeii), Mount St. Helens (USA), and my favourite, the unpronounceable Eyjafjallajökull (Iceland- the one that threw tons of volcanic ash into airspace over Europe that lasted 6 days).
Even the iconic Mount Fuji in Japan is a volcano (last eruption in 1708).
There's actually a new movie coming out in February about Pompeii (I'm super excited about it as it's starring JON SNOW from Game of Thrones (for any GOT fans out there)
So students had already researched volcanoes, so they looked through books for images to inspire them. We talked about volcanoes main featured such as the lava, ash cloud, and the crater at the top.
On black construction paper, students sketched out their volcano first in pencil, then passed over the lines with a thick line using a black wax crayon (you could also use oil pastels).
Then they were coloured in using chalk pastels- this medium was especially useful for creating
the ash cloud as it's nice and soft and blend-able.
Ta da!
