2nd Grade Optical Illusions! or in their terms (obstacle illusions!) haha! Too cute!
These second graders got to learn a little bit about optical illusions - what they are, what they look like, how we know they are optical illusions, and how to create their own! The optical illusions I had them create, were ones where the shapes look like they are popping out of the paper! We first used rulers as a straight edge to create the stripes across the paper with pencil! Then they used the tracing shapes I created for them to lay out the composition of their optical illusion. We talked about not lining the shapes up with the lines of their stripes, and leaving themselves space to color in the shapes. We wanted to make sure the shapes were balanced on our paper, and that we spread them out in a way that looked nice. They got to choose which shapes they used and where they put them on their paper. Once they were happy with the placements of the shapes, they traced the shapes over the top of the stripes. Then we talked about our first color, and coloring in only every other stripe. "DODGE THE SHAPES" they said. Yes. Dodge the shapes, we are only coloring the stripes first! Then they colored the stripes with their second color, and then we moved on to the shapes. We got to talk about why coloring our papers this way created the optical illusion and discussed some of those ideas!
The kiddos really loved this project, they at first thought it was magic and that there was no way they would be able to do this on their own, but once they started seeing their shapes appear, they were in disbelief! They were so excited to finish these up, that I decided I am going to create an optical illusion extension project for them to keep exploring this avenue of art!
The objectives for this lesson were:
The learner will be able to neatly trace 4-5 shapes of their choice onto their final optical illusion paper with pencil
The learner will be able to correctly use their ruler to create even straight lines (stripes) across their paper.
The learner will be able to correctly color their paper doing opposite colors on the stripes and shapes, to create their optical illusion
The learner will be able to recall how to color neatly and carefully and use that knowledge to color in their optical illusions as neatly as they can
Academic Vocabulary:
- Optical Illusions
These second graders got to learn a little bit about optical illusions - what they are, what they look like, how we know they are optical illusions, and how to create their own! The optical illusions I had them create, were ones where the shapes look like they are popping out of the paper! We first used rulers as a straight edge to create the stripes across the paper with pencil! Then they used the tracing shapes I created for them to lay out the composition of their optical illusion. We talked about not lining the shapes up with the lines of their stripes, and leaving themselves space to color in the shapes. We wanted to make sure the shapes were balanced on our paper, and that we spread them out in a way that looked nice. They got to choose which shapes they used and where they put them on their paper. Once they were happy with the placements of the shapes, they traced the shapes over the top of the stripes. Then we talked about our first color, and coloring in only every other stripe. "DODGE THE SHAPES" they said. Yes. Dodge the shapes, we are only coloring the stripes first! Then they colored the stripes with their second color, and then we moved on to the shapes. We got to talk about why coloring our papers this way created the optical illusion and discussed some of those ideas!
The kiddos really loved this project, they at first thought it was magic and that there was no way they would be able to do this on their own, but once they started seeing their shapes appear, they were in disbelief! They were so excited to finish these up, that I decided I am going to create an optical illusion extension project for them to keep exploring this avenue of art!
The objectives for this lesson were:
The learner will be able to neatly trace 4-5 shapes of their choice onto their final optical illusion paper with pencil
The learner will be able to correctly use their ruler to create even straight lines (stripes) across their paper.
The learner will be able to correctly color their paper doing opposite colors on the stripes and shapes, to create their optical illusion
The learner will be able to recall how to color neatly and carefully and use that knowledge to color in their optical illusions as neatly as they can
Academic Vocabulary:
- Optical Illusions