Beacon Lesson Plan Library
Cave Paintings: Studying the Past
Patricia Barry Holbert
Santa Rosa District Schools
Description
Students study prehistoric cave paintings from Lascaux, France, and Altamira, Spain. The students form their own clans and draw cave paintings about their culture.
Standards
Florida Sunshine State Standards
SS.A.1.4.1
The student understands how ideas and beliefs, decisions, and chance events have been used in the process of writing and interpreting history.
SS.A.1.4.4
The student uses chronology, sequencing, patterns, and periodization to examine interpretations of an event.
SS.A.2.4.1
The student understands the early physical and cultural development of humans.
Florida Process Standards
Information Managers
01 Florida students locate, comprehend, interpret, evaluate, maintain, and apply information, concepts, and ideas found in literature, the arts, symbols, recordings, video and other graphic displays, and computer files in order to perform tasks and/or for enjoyment.
Critical and Creative Thinkers
04 Florida students use creative thinking skills to generate new ideas, make the best decision, recognize and solve problems through reasoning, interpret symbolic data, and develop efficient techniques for lifelong learning.
Responsible and Ethical Workers
05 Florida students display responsibility, self-esteem, sociability, selfmanagement, integrity, and honesty.
Cooperative Workers
08 Florida students work cooperatively to successfully complete a project or activity.
Effective Leaders
09 Florida students establish credibility with their colleagues through competence and integrity and help their peers achieve their goals by communicating their feelings and ideas to justify or successfully negotiate a position which advances goal attainment.
Multiculturally Sensitive Citizens
10 Florida students appreciate their own culture and the cultures of others, understand the concerns and perspectives of members of other ethnic and gender groups, reject the stereotyping of themselves and others, and seek out and utilize the views of persons from diverse ethnic, social, and educational backgrounds while completing individually and group projects.
Materials
-World History textbook
-Computer Internet site, slides, or transparencies of cave paintings
-Computer, slide projector, or overhead projector
-Long pieces of paper from a large roll - brown, tan, or white
-Colored chalk, oil pastels, or markers
-Tape
Preparations
1. Get the slides or transparencies of the cave paintings ready.
2. If the Internet is going to be used, bookmark the sites.
3. Go over the notes from the attached file about the cave paintings.
4. Get the rolled paper, colored chalk, oil pastels, or markers ready.
Procedures
1. Show cave paintings from Lascaux, France, and Altimira, Spain (from slides, transparencies, the textbook, or from the Internet sites). See Weblinks.
2. Discuss the notes that are provided in the attached file. These notes discuss the origins, the discoveries, the theories, and the methods of painting.
3. Have students simulate cave paintings:
a. Divide the students into clans (about 4 or 5 to a group).
b. The students draw and color cave paintings on long rolls of paper that are taped on the walls.
c. They describe what was important to their culture by using pictures.
d. The students will use colored chalk, oil pastels, or markers to paint the animals.
e. When they are finished, they tell the rest of the clans what their cave painting represents.
f. The students can finish their paintings and tell about them the second day.
Assessments
The teacher will use the rubrics in the Attached Files to assess the cave painting.
Extensions
This activity can be used as an introduction to the prehistoric period in the study of World History.
This activity could be used in an art or humanities class to teach about early art.
Web Links
Web supplement for Cave Paintings LascauxWeb supplement for Cave Paintings AltamiraWeb supplement for Cave Paintings Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc
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