Celestial Bodies

The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey

For this lesson on Byzantine art, sixth grade students learned that:

·    After the fall of the Roman Empire, Byzantine art focused on religious subjects such as icons, domed churches and decorative mosaics. 

·    One of the most famous examples of Byzantine art is the Hagia Sophia, a church in Istanbul, Turkey.  The inner walls are decorated with heavenly mosaics using small pieces of colored glass and the dome attracts your attention upwards towards the celestial bodies of the universe.

·    Celestial bodies are any natural body outside of the Earth’s atmosphere such as the Moon, Sun, planets and asteroids.

·    Astronomy is the oldest science in the world that studies celestial bodies including, but not limited to, planets, stars, and galaxies.

·    Early cultures studied the night sky to decide when to plant and what the best day was for a celebration.

·    Ancient astronomers only knew about the first five planets; the others are too dim to see without a telescope

·   The invention of the telescope propelled astronomy into a modern science.

Afterwards, students were asked to:

·    Use a pencil to sketch celestial bodies onto black paper and include overlapping objects and different sizes to provide a depth of space.

·    Add several other creative items to build an interesting composition. 

·    Go over pencil lines with glue.

·    Fill in composition with soft pastels after the glue dried.