Description

Lascaux Cave History and Art Lesson

Lascaux Cave is located in southwestern France and contains some of the most well preserved cave art in the world. Students will have fun learning about the history of the cave in a short powerpoint presentation and then creating their own cave art drawing.

The Art Project

Using brown construction paper or grocery bags, students will create their own prehistoric drawing. First, they crumple the bag to give it texture. After laying the paper out flat again, they paint their own cave art using red, yellow, white, brown, and black paint. This is a simple, yet engaging, art lesson for kids, perfect for elementary aged students. For an extra twist, you could tape the paper underneath the desks and turn off the lights for a more "cave-like" experience.

The History

In 1940, WWII was raging and the Germans were taking Europe by storm. During this tumultuous time, 4 boys on the lookout for a lost dog found Lascaux Cave. At first they wanted to keep the cave a secret but too many people heard about it and knowledge of the cave spread like wildfire. It was believed that the paintings inside were very old yet the drawings on the wall were very well preserved and were not even faded. Because of the war, the cave was closed just months after it opened and it became a secret storehouse for munitions for the French Resistance. When the cave reopened, so many people visited the cave that the pictures quickly started to deteriorate. The caves were closed for good in 1963 to preserve the paintings. In 1983, a replica of the caves was created. You can now only visit a replica of the art of the Lascaux Caves.

PowerPoints Included

#1 - Location of the caves

#2 - Discovery of the caves

#3 - About the Cave (including information on the Hall of Bulls)

#4 - What kind of pictures are included and how many pictures there are

#5 - How the pictures were made

#7-11 - Examples of pictures from the cave (Children guess what they think the pictures are)

#12 - Explanation and example art project

#13 - Cave art symbols to be used as examples for the students

I hope you enjoy this Lascaux Cave Art project as much as we did. I recommend checking out a picture book on the Lascaux caves and reading that to your students as well. There were several at our local library

Enjoy! Please come visit my store!

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