Learning how to draw a city with one point perspective works best when you include just a few simple elements and some guides to help you get started.

A time lapse drawing of a city with one point perspective.

To introduce the idea of one point perspective to older elementary students, it really helps to do it in an very structured way. Similar shaped buildings and similar shaped trees help keep any confusion to a minimum when learning this new concept.

When I was new to teaching years ago, I tried to have students draw their own guides, but most found it so frustrating that they never even got to their buildings.

So if any of your students end up going on to architecture school, they can learn to make their own one (and two!) point guides, but meanwhile, others can get the idea by using my guide on page 3 of the download. It tells them how tall individual things should be, but leaves room for creative interpretation. In other words, it’s easy to see where the buildings and trees need to be, but how is totally up to them.