Michelangelo Art Lesson for Kids {Homeschool Corner}

I am often asked what I use for homeschooling and what activities we do, so I have decided to share some of the fun we have with all of you. I am starting with an art lesson we had a couple of months ago.

On a side note this would be fun for any kids especially when you are trying to find activities for summer break!!

First and fore most let me say I am absolutely no artist! I don’t have an artistic bone in my body but that doesn’t mean I can’t teach art! I like to teach art appreciation by learning about an artist’s life. Looking at their works of art and then using some of the same techniques the artist used we create our own works of art.

For this lesson we learned about Michelangelo over the course of a couple weeks.

Week one we learned about one of his most famous paintings: The Sistine Chapel

A Few Fun Facts about Michelangelo:

His full name is Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni.
His mother died when he was only 6.
He was the second oldest of 5 boys.
He preferred sculpting over painting.
Only painted the Sistine Chapel because the Pope asked him too.
Took him 4 years to paint the Sistine Chapel.
It has over 300 people and no two are alike.
He had to stand or lay on a scaffold and paint over his head the whole time.

To show how hard it is to paint up above your head we taped papers to the bottom of our desks and the bottom of the dining room table and painted with water colors.

Let’s just say they didn’t even last a half an hour and I don’t think any of them finished their pictures! Art appreciation learned!

The second week we learned about his sculptures. We studied The Pieta and his most famous Michelangelo’s David.

A Few Facts About the Sculptures:

David is 13 ft. tall.
They are both made out of marble.
The Pieta is the only work of art Michelangelo ever signed.

For this hands on art experience we used Ivory soap bars and each child carved their own sculpture. (Ivory is a super soft soap and very easy for kids of any age to carve.)

We used screw drivers, nails, butter knives, and pocket knives to carve our sculptures. We did this with kids that range in age from 4-14 and everyone had a lot of fun!