Find out about Venice. In what country is it located? Research and write a report on the history of the city.
What makes Venice different from other cities?
What are the primary means of transportation in Venice? Would the traffic sounds be different from those in your city? Discuss.
How do people get to work or to school in Venice? Is this the same as in your neighborhood? Why or why not?
Look at the painting and decide what kind of a day is shown. Is it summer or winter? Why? What clues does the artist give you?
Find poems and stories about Venice. Choose one and compare the mood of the written work with that of the painting.
Write a poem or story about this picture. Where are the people going? Where have they come from? Compare your poems, stories. Are there similarities?
Use Ponte della Paglia as a math activity to study estimates and graphing. Estimate the number of people in the picture. Estimate the number of women and of men. Are there more women than men? Make graphs to demonstrate. Count the number of people, then of women, then of men. Were the estimates correct? Make new graphs to show correct ratios.
The artist gives a sense of people moving into space in this picture. He creates this sense of perspective through using figures of different sizes: small, medium, and large. Where does he place the largest figures? The medium figures? The smallest figures? Discuss the concepts of foreground, midground, and background and show where they are in this picture.
Look for the patterns in this painting. Does the artist repeat colors? Shapes? Discuss the use of repetition in the composition.