Cinderella Story

The scope and sequence for my district this 9 weeks asks us to explore observational artwork with 1st grade.  Not an easy concept, and such a wide skill set with 1st grade.  Last year, I developed a neat little lesson which coincides with my 1st grade classroom teachers' exploration of Cinderella. (At least I think they do that).  Anyhow.  We start by learning the word observant, and taking a glance at a William Wegman book I have, where the dogs act out Cinderella.  Very wordy, but the pictures are cute, and it gets the idea of using humor to tell a story across.  We then take off a shoe- which the kids think is hysterical, and we draw it- being very observant, and trying to be as accurate as possible.  I have them trace with sharpie, color with crayon, and cut it out.  The sock/leg combo is added, and they write their name on the back- this is very important, because I then have them write 3 simple clues about themselves.  (I have green eyes, I have freckles, etc).  I then display the shoes and clues in the hallway, and we encourage those in the hallway to try to match the shoe to the artist.

The girl is in 1st grade-amazing when she's in the zone. 

Not sure if the hairy leg is funnier, or the fact that it's a girl...

She preferred pants to bare legs

A Cinderella Story

This 9 weeks in the MNPS curriculum for 1st Grade Art starts off with an observational drawing. I have been attempting to incorporate some Common Core themes into my art lessons, to help the students better connect with what they are learning.  In their classroom, Cinderella is one of the stories during this time.  So, I brought in a bunch of shoes, and we tried drawing them.  Couple of problems- I'm a girl, therefore, I wear girl shoes (and boy shoes are very expensive at Goodwill compared to girl shoes).  Needless to say, the boys were none to happy with this.  And, while the drawings were ok, they weren't really what I was hoping for.  So, the next time the kids came to art, I had them draw one of their own shoes.  This, they loved.  Partly, because of the novelty of putting ones shoe on the desk, and partly, because they got to take off their shoe.  Whatever the reason, I was really much happier with the drawings.  We added the socks/legs this class session, and, in keeping with the Cinderella theme, we folded a "book".  On the inside, they wrote their name.  On the outside, they wrote (copied) "Who Fits This Shoe?" and then, with prompts, they wrote 3 clues about themselves, so that viewers can guess the shoe.  One sentence started with "I have", one with "I am" and one with "I like".  I was pleased with the results overall, and doing the leg also gave me a chance to review the concept of observational drawing, as we had to look at our legs, and find any moles, freckles, hairs, scabs, band-aids, etc, so that they could be added to the leg as another glue.

Lovin' the band-aide

This 1st grader is not only a fashion plate, but has a great eye for detail when drawing.  

Drawing Lesson with Kindergarten

Spring has sprung here in Nashville, which means it's time for some fresh Spring projects.  Much like Mr. E, I am kind of trying to avoid the traditional O'Keefe flower lesson (though, it is an old favorite).  I find that my plastic bug collection has come in handy.  Our Kindergarten students are learning about insects/bugs/nature-ish stuff in Science, and since I am trying to incorporate more common core into my lessons, I decided bugs were something we could have a lot of fun with.  I handed each student a plastic bug as they walked in, and we talked about similarities and differences between species.  We looked at the shapes/lines/colors that made up each bug, and then I demonstrated how to draw a much bigger bug on the paper.  Here are some of the drawings my kiddos came up with- not too shabby! As we finished drawing, I gave out sharpies to trace.  Students could use any color combination they wished, as long as they colored around the sharpie lines, not over them.