Kindergarten Trees of Life

Students learned about Norval Morrisseau, a famous Aboriginal Canadian artist known for his thick black outlines and bright colors. We focused on his tree paintings. Many of these are titled Tree of Life. Within them he depicts: birds, flowers, butterflies, fruit, and leaves in addition to the trunk and branches. As a class we talked about other life giving aspects of trees. Students said trees also provide: oxygen for us to breath, a shelter for animals, a place for bees to build a hive, or a spider to build a web.

Then the students began to draw their own tree of life. They used a thick-tipped Sharpie marker to draw their tree’s trunk and branches. They drew slightly trunks and curvy horizontal branches like Morriseau. Then they used a fine-tipped Sharpie to draw all of their details. Lastly, they added bright colors to their drawings just like the artist used.

Description: Margaret Swenson, art teacher