Drawing
Submitted by: Jennifer, Emily & Eric
Activity 1: Sunflowers (back to top)
Age: 4-8
Activity: Discuss sunflowers, the sunflower works of various artists, and expressionist art. Have students plan and create a sunflower drawing using large pieces of canvas or paper and various materials, being sure to encourage the use of bold strokes of color and energetic lines.
Materials: Poster paper, Pencil crayons or crayons or chalk or oil pastels; Images of sunflower paintings and drawings; A real sunflower (if possible); Sunflower seeds
Preparations/Safety Precautions: None
Standards: Visual Arts- Skills and Techniques, Standard 1: VA.A.1.1; Visual Arts- Creation and Communication, Standard 1: VA.B.1.1
Activity 2: Name Creatures (back to top)
Age: 4-8
Activity: Fold paper in half lengthwise and crease, open and write name in cursive (important) large enough to take up most of the paper on half of paper. Trace the name heavily with the chalk Refold the paper on the crease and rub over the paper with the back of the spoon or a popsicle stick. Open sheet and trace name with black marker. Color in the shapes with different colors to create a creature form the shapes.
Materials: Paper; Crayons or markers; 1 chalk or pastel; Large black marker; Spoon or popsicle stick
Preparations/Safety Precautions: None
Standards: Visual Arts- Skills and Techniques, Standard 1: VA.A.1.1; Visual Arts- Creation and Communication, Standard 1: VA.B.1.1
Activity 3: Bottles (back to top)
Age: 4-8
Activity: Draw and hand out a photocopy of an empty bottle. Have students fill the bottle by drawing something that you normally wouldn't find in a bottle (a truck, a teddy bear, butterflies etc.)
Materials: Paper, Markers, pencils, or crayons
Preparations/Safety Precautions: None
Standards: Visual Arts- Skills and Techniques, Standard 1: VA.A.1.1; Visual Arts- Creation and Communication, Standard 1: VA.B.1.1
Activity 4: Complimentary Color Drawings (back to top)
Age: 4-8
Activity: Review the color wheel with the class, explaining that the complementary colors are opposite one another on the color wheel and the ways in which they work together. Have the students select complementary color pairs and create a drawing of themselves, their friends, or objects using only those 2 colors (they can be combined to create gray).
Materials: Color wheel; White paper; Two complementary color crayons
Preparations/Safety Precautions: None
Standards: Visual Arts- Skills and Techniques, Standard 1: VA.A.1.1; Visual Arts- Creation and Communication, Standard 1: VA.B.1.1
Activity 5: Blind Outlines (back to top)
Age: 4-8
Activity: Choose an object to draw (a door, a book, shoes, window, plant etc.). Pick a point on the object where the eye can start looking at the contour (outline) of the object, when the eye begins to move, so should the hand holding the pencil. Try drawing the entire contour of the object without lifting your pencil form the paper or looking at your hand or paper.
Materials: Paper; Pencils or markers; Everyday Objects (shoes, plants, desks, pencils etc.)
Preparations/Safety Precautions: None
Standards: Visual Arts- Skills and Techniques, Standard 1: VA.A.1.1; Visual Arts- Creation and Communication, Standard 1: VA.B.1.1; Visual Arts – Aesthetic and Critical Analysis, Standard 1: VA.D.1.1; Visual Arts- Applications to Life, Standard 1: VA.E.1.1
Activity 6: Abstract Instructions (back to top)
Age: 3-8
Activity: The teacher will call out directions for their students, who will draw what they hear. Students need to listen carefully to the directions and should not look at one-another's work while doing this exercise. Each finished work will look different.
Materials: Construction paper (light colors); Markers (fine and thick tip)
Preparations/Safety Precautions: Teachers need to prepare a list of instructions, such as: Draw 6 straight lines from 1 edge of your paper to another, draw 2 triangles, draw a circle inside another shape, etc.
Standards: Visual Arts- Skills and Techniques, Standard 1: VA.A.1.1; Visual Arts- Creation and Communication, Standard 1: VA.B.1.1; Language Arts- Listening, Viewing, and Speaking, Standard 1: LA.C.1.1; Language Arts- Language, Standard 1: LA.D.1.1
Activity 7: Color Next to Me (back to top)
Age: 6-10
Activity: Have students make a large scribble drawing and choose three colors. Explain the rules and the way to plan the drawing to the students. Have students color in their drawings.
Materials: Paper; Colored pencils, crayons, or markers
Preparations/Safety Precautions: The rules are: you can only use three colors and the same color cannot share a "wall".
Standards: Visual Arts- Skills and Techniques, Standard 1: VA.A.1.1; Visual Arts- Creation and Communication, Standard 1: VA.B.1.1
Activity 8: Beautiful Numbers (back to top)
Age: 4-12
Activity: Choose a number (if working in a classroom situation, you might want to have children draw numbers out of a hat to avoid a class full of the same numbers) and have children draw the number on cardboard or poster board. The number should be large and bulky (not small and skimpy). Cut the number out. Outline some fun designs on the number shape. Using markers or paint, fill in the designs.
Materials: Cardboard or poster board; Pencils; Safety Scissors; Tempera paint or markers; Paint brushes (if you are using paint)
Preparations/Safety Precautions: Have adults cut out numbers for young children.
Standards: Mathematics– Number Sense, Concepts, and Operations A, Standards 1 and 2: MA.A.1.1, MA.A.2.1; Visual Arts- Skills and Techniques, Standard 1: VA.A.1.1; Visual Arts- Creation and Communication, Standard 1: VA.B.1.1
Activity 9: Classic Still Life Drawing (back to top)
Age: 4-12
Activity: Introduce the students to the concept of parallel line shading, still life, repetition of shape within a composition, and the classic method of drawing on toned paper with charcoal or black pencil, heightening with white. Show examples of drawings done on tinted paper. Display the still life, and have students begin with an outline drawing, working on the objects in the front first, and then adding shading as they see it. Allow students to add highlights with the white chalk.
Materials: Toned drawing paper, in dark tan; Black colored pencil; Chalk; Scratch paper; Still life elements; Examples of similar drawings, done on tinted paper and heightened with chalk by masters
Preparations/Safety Precautions: None
Standards: Visual Arts- Skills and Techniques, Standard 1: VA.A.1.1; Visual Arts- Creation and Communication, Standard 1: VA.B.1.1; Visual Arts– Cultural and Historical Connections, Standard 1: VA.C.1.1; Social Studies– Time, Continuity, and Change, Standard 1: SS.A.1.1
Activity 10: Crazy Doodles (back to top)
Age: 8+
Activity: Have students create a free-form drawing project that deals with the elements of design - color, line, shape, form and texture by simply doodling. Begin in one spot on the paper and start drawing doodles without overlapping other doodles. After filling the paper with doodles, have students color in the doodles with solid color, lines, cross-hatching, dots, dashes, etc.
Materials: Any kind of drawing paper. (size 8' x 10' or larger); Markers, Pencils, Pencil Crayons
Preparations/Safety Precautions:
Standards: Visual Arts- Skills and Techniques, Standard 1: VA.A.1.1; Visual Arts- Creation and Communication, Standard 1: VA.B.1.1; Visual Arts– Cultural and Historical Connections, Standard 1: VA.C.1.1; Social Studies– Time, Continuity, and Change, Standard 1: SS.A.1.1
Activity 11: Geometric Wall Hanging (back to top)
Age: 6-10
Activity: Have students will examine Native American Wall Hangings utilizing on line resources or examine actual samples or pictures brought in by teacher and discuss the geometric patterns used by these artists. Have students begin to plan their own designs using white construction paper and pencils. Have students color their designs and discuss the choice of colors and patterns.
Materials: White construction paper; Washable Markers- red, brown, white, orange, black; Pictures of Native American Wall Hangings
Preparations/Safety Precautions: None
Standards: Visual Arts- Skills and Techniques, Standard 1: VA.A.1.1; Visual Arts- Creation and Communication, Standard 1: VA.B.1.1; Visual Arts– Cultural and Historical Connections, Standard 1: VA.C.1.1; Social Studies– Time, Continuity, and Change, Standard 1: SS.A.1.1
Activity 12: A Month of Moons (back to top)
Age: 6-10
Activity: At the beginning of the moon cycle (new moon), have students go out every night at the same time to see how the moon has changed. Ask students to draw a picture each night. Keep notes for 29 nights so that students can see the entire cycle of the moon.
Materials: Chart; Pencils
Preparations/Safety Precautions: None
Standards: Visual Arts- Skills and Techniques, Standard 1: VA.A.1.1; Visual Arts- Creation and Communication, Standard 1: VA.B.1.1; Science- Earth and Space, Standard 1: SC.E.1.1
Activity 13: Drawing to Music (back to top)
Age: 3-10
Activity: Tell the students that you are going to play some music for them and that they need to listen carefully and create drawings of anything that they think about when listening to the music. Ask students to not start drawing until they have a good vision in their head of what they want to draw. Play the slow-tempo music and tell the students to start drawing whenever the music causes them to think of something. Play the fast-tempo music and have students do similar drawings. Discuss these differences with the students and ask them if the two pieces made them think of different things.
Materials: Slow and fast-paced music selections; Crayons, markers, or colored pencils; Paper
Preparations/Safety Precautions: None
Standards: Visual Arts- Skills and Techniques, Standard 1: VA.A.1.1; Visual Arts- Creation and Communication, Standard 1: VA.B.1.1; Music- Applications to Life, Standard 1: MU.E.1.1
Activity 14: Perfect Flowers (back to top)
Age: 6-10
Activity: Explain to the students that visual placement is being able to complete a picture so that both sides/halves are equal or proportionate. Give the half picture to the students so that they can see the flower they will be drawing. Have the students draw exactly on the opposite side the same thing, so that when they are finished it will look like a mirror image. Once finished with comparing, see if they can name the parts of their flower or the perfect flower.
Materials: Pencils; Paper; Half a drawing of a perfect flower: such as day lilies, daffodils, freesia, roses, or Bradford pears.
Preparations/Safety Precautions: Do this activity after a lesson on the parts of a flower. NOTE: Although this activity does not offer the freedom to create, it will offer students the opportunity to participate in a hands-on, concrete activity to reinforce the concepts of the lesson.
Standards: Visual Arts- Skills and Techniques, Standard 1: VA.A.1.1; Visual Arts- Creation and Communication, Standard 1: VA.B.1.1; Science- Processes of Life, Standard 1: SC.F.1.1
Activity 15: Moody Weather (back to top)
Age: 6-8
Activity: Give each child a handout that includes the weather symbols used on TV with the weather channel. After handing this paper out, tell the children that sometimes our mood feels like the weather. For instance, today I feel sunny. This could mean that I feel warm, happy, or anything that the children want. The children will have a sheet of paper that they can draw on. Have them write the days of the week Monday through Friday on this sheet allotting space for a picture. They will then draw how they feel using the weather symbols for each day.
Materials: Pencils, Paper, Markers, crayons, colored pencils
Preparations/Safety Precautions: None
Standards: Visual Arts- Skills and Techniques, Standard 1: VA.A.1.1; Visual Arts- Creation and Communication, Standard 1: VA.B.1.1; Science- Processes that Shape the Earth, Standard 1.3: SC.D.1.1.3