Pre-visit Activities

Before you visit us, ask students to answer these questions:

• What do I have to know to really understand lighthouses?
• What would I really like to know about lighthouses?

Next, ask each student to write down a question that they want to have answered on the tour. It will be their responsibility to find out the answer during the tour and report to class.

For more fun, have everyone swap questions before the tour.

Not just for artists activity

Have you ever been on a long, straight road or looked down the railroad tracks and noticed that the sides of the road or the rails of the track seemed to come together in the distance? That point where they seem to meet is called the HORIZON. It's about as far away as your eye can see when there is nothing to block your view.

Did you know that artists have figured out a way to draw this horizon as well as the illusion that parallel lines converge in the distance? The method they use is called PERSPECTIVE. Perspective drawing can be very scientific and carefully measured, or you can do it in a more casual way.

Try observing the distant horizon in different places like on the road, on the beach, and from down in a ditch or up on a hill. How does it change?

One way to help yourself observe and draw a scene in perspective is to make a little window to look through. Get a 3x5 inch file card and cut it into a 3 inch square. In the middle of the card, cut out a one inch square opening. Hold the card up and use it to frame the scene you are looking at. This will help you see exactly where the horizon is in relation to everything else. Is the horizon at the center of the frame? Lower? Higher? This information will tell you where to put the horizon line on paper when you try to draw what you're looking at. Where are buildings, trees and people in relation to the horizon line?

Bring your little window with you when you visit the Light Station. When you climb the tower, notice what happens to the location of the horizon. Try drawing this scene when you get home (or back to school).