Thanks to our friends at Oklahoma A+ Schools, we’re continuing a year-long series of easy, fun and engaging arts integration activities that kids and families can enjoy together. For this installment, we’re exploring perspective.
Bonus: Integrating the arts with students’ everyday academics is proven to increase comprehension and retention!
Lesson 11: Perspective
Perspective is a way of regarding something. It’s a point of view or how we see things. Every person brings their own perspective to every situation. The same is true for both bugs and birds! In visual art, perspective can mean where the artist imagines the viewer to be. This integrated activity utilizes photography to help gain an understanding of different perspectives.
Bug’s Eye & Bird’s Eye Views
There is a piece of bread on the ground next to the swing set. An ant crawls up to it. It’s as big as a mountain to her! She wants to take it back to her ant hill. She walks around it and tries to lift it. It’s simply too large. The ant goes back to get more ants. Maybe together they can carry it.
A pigeon flies overhead. He notices a tiny speck by the swing set. After flying down to investigate, he discovers it is a small piece of bread, his favorite treat! He snaps the tiny crumb up in his beak and swallows it whole. The ant comes back to discover the giant piece of bread is gone! What happened? Did the bread change? What can we understand about perspective from the ant and the pigeon? Let’s try gaining perspective in new ways!
- Choose an object.
- Imagine you are a bug. Look at this object with new eyes. What would a bug see? Get very close. Lift it up above you. What do you notice about it?
- Then, imagine you are a bird. Look at this object with new eyes. What would a bird see? Get far away. Put the object down and look at it from above. What do you notice about it?
- Take photos as a bug. Using a camera, take pictures of your object as if you were a bug. Remember what you noticed when you got close and when the object was above you. What did it look like? What caught your eye?
- Take photos as a bird. Using a camera, take pictures of your object as if you were a bird. Remember what you noticed when you were far away and the object was below you. What did it look like? What caught your eye?
- View a bug perspective and bird perspective photos side-by-side. What do you notice? Does it look like the same object in both photos? What is the same? What is different?
Extension ideas:
Write a paragraph about your object like the story of the bread crumb. What would the bug and the bird each think if they saw your object?
Rather than taking a photo, imagine you are a bug and draw what you see of your object. Then adopt the bird’s perspective and do the same thing. See how your drawings change with the change in perspective.
Integrated arts activities are created by certified teachers and provided by Oklahoma A+ Schools to meet the Oklahoma Academic Standards across multiple content areas. Find more activities at metrofamilymagazine.com/