St. Basil's Cathedral- Water Color Lesson

My lesson about St. Basil's Cathedral always worked well when it was taught at the middle school level. So I wanted to  modify it and try it at the elementary level with my 4th graders. 
Well, guess what? This lesson came out really well! My 4th graders did another great job when they designed their cathedrals. Woo Hoo, 4th grade!

This lesson starts out with a Keynote slide presentation about the history of the cathedral. Besides all the historical stuff, the kids get to see pictures of the cathedral with all its bright, cartoonish colors and patterns. Learn about what an 'onion' dome is. And they also see the geometric set up of the 9 towers ( 8 small towers around the 9th large tower) that make up the cathedral. 

A work in progress

On their projects, the kids have to draw at least four towers, two of them overlapping. As you can see, a lot of the kids decided to draw more than four towers and overlap more than two. (Woo hoo, for motivated kids!) The towers need to be designed with patterns using color, shape and lines. Doors and windows are also required to  be added.

Patterns colored with colored pencils

The sky is painted in watercolor. Either one color or two/three blended colors. The kids could then choose to color in the towers with colored pencils or markers. The cathedrals were all outlined in Sharpie. 

A creative take on the project

What do you think about this lesson on St. Basil's Cathedral? Would it work in your  elementary art class?

You can comment below.

  Oh yea,  if you're interested, you can find more art lessons about

 architecture if you look here.