Picture This – Art Exploration for Kids: Ways of Seeing: Impossible Possibilities: “The Fascinating World of Escher—Art and Illusion” April Fools!

 

Ways of Seeing: Impossible Possibilities:
“The Fascinating World of Escher—Art and Illusion”

Kindergarten through 5^th grade.

 

“Get a head start on April Fool’s Day. Explore ways your eyes can be fooled using optical illusions, distortions in perspective and the artwork of M.C. Escher. Then we will make and play with kaleidoscopes, thaumatropes, and other optical illusion toys and create some illusory art of our own.”

· Open by showing kids pictures from assorted Escher “coffee table” books, talk about the artist.

· View “Trompe l’oil” segment from Reading Rainbow: Opt, An Illusionary Tale.and/or read Palazzo Inverso by D.B. Johnson, or Imagine a Place, Imagine a Day, or Imagine a Night -- all by Sarah L. Thomson and Rob Gonsalves. 

· Have half the tables with stations: assorted optical illusion toys from 101 Science Tricks by Richard Roy and 101 Science Surprises by Richard Roy (both J507.8 RIC), Look-alikes (Picture Book Steiner), Magic Eye books, Walter Wick’s Optical Tricks (J152.148 WIC).

· Other tables are art tables for “impossible pictures” – stairs that go nowhere, etc. (Supplies: 11x17” paper, pencils, markers, construction paper, glue sticks)

· Resources: Do you see what I see? : the art of illusion -- Angela Wenzel (Adventures in Art Series), www.illusionworks.com, Escher books

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