Venetian Architecture

Venice, Italy.  Second grade students took a little trip to Italy to discover the beauty of Venice. Venice is actually composed of 118 small islands that are not strong enough to support the architecture.  The architecture there is actually supported by wooden platforms that are kept together by millions of wooden piles entrenched in the sea bed.  Venice has  416 bridges and 177 canals that help residents and tourists navigate this unique city.

After a discussion of Venice, students began by drawing a line across their papers and drawing several rectangles of various sizes along the line.  Students added arches and other details characteristic of Italian architecture.  Students then drew the wavy reflections below the line, thus creating symmetry.  Color was added using oil pastels, vividly to the buildings above the line and somewhat more faint below the line.  To finish the lesson students added watercolor to help create the illusion of water.  I borrowed this lesson from Artsonia.