Southeast 6th graders have started this school year with an art timeline from cave art to 20th century art. We have completed the cave art and students had such a great time!! First, we watched a presentation about cave art. You can watch this presentation at
http://prezi.com/7kbgq0msxdq-/cave-art/ . Next, we toured the inside of the cave through a virtual tour (the website link is in the presentation). Then we discussed the subject of what they drew and how important art is in every culture and time period. After our discussion, we were ready to draw. I had students crumple up a few large sheets of brown butcher paper and tape them under the tables and on the walls (to mimic the cave) and we turned off the lights and had to crawl in the "cave" and draw things that were important in our lives in the style of the cave art. Students only had limited colors to work with because they did not have many colors to choose from 15,000 years ago. Scientists believe that cave artists used their hand prints as a signature, so our students also placed their hand prints in our cave.
Southeast 7th graders are starting an art timeline that begins at the start of the 20th Century and ends in contemporary or modern art. We have began with artists Henri Matisse and Franz Marc. They started an art movement called Fauvism in about 1904-1908. It had recognizable subjects, however was unique due to the bright and unexpected colors and visible brush strokes. We discussed this through a presentation which you can watch at http://prezi.com/98rodcitrsz1/fauvism-matisse-and-marc-horses/ Our students really connected with Franz Marc because he is most well known for his paintings of horses and many of our students see horses everyday or own horses themselves. Students chose an animal that they wanted to draw and we used oil pastels to recreate the bright colors and textures of Marc. 
