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My younger students spent last week practicing drawing geometric forms. It teaches them to draw from observation- to notice the length of lines and the overlapping of shapes. It teaches them to draw what they actually see. We started by drawing cubes. It was interesting that in almost every class, a student told me, "But we already know how to draw cubes!" They meant this type of drawing: I explained to them that this was a "math-style" cube. You draw it the same way, every time, without having to look at an actual cube. You are drawing it based on information from your BRAIN, rather than from your EYES. I asked each student to pick up one of the foam cubes and hold it in front of them at eye-level. Then we lifted them higher, and lower, and twisted them to the left and to the right. We observed how the lines and angles and shapes changed depending on how we looked at the cube. To start the drawing practice, I had students draw just the cubes to begin with. I set a timer for five minutes and asked them to draw the cube over and over until the timer stopped. It was not a race or a contest to see how many they could draw- instead, I wanted them to focus on drawing it more realistically and accurately each time. At the end, I asked the students to look back at their first cube and compare it to their last- most of them agreed, the more they drew it, the better they got! a second grade example a first grade example a kindergarten example Next, students chose a variety of shapes and arranged them into an interesting composition. At the beginning of the week, I let each student pick from the whole tub of shapes, but as the week went on I made bags of shapes to save time, and just let them pick the color. This drawing task was a challenge for kids- some of their brains were just not quite ready to grasp transferring a three-dimensional shape into a flat drawing. But some of them really got it! It was interesting to see the varying ability levels in each grade level. Some of the kindergarten students were more successful than some of the second graders! It just depends on how ready their brains were. But, it was a good exercise for all students. It helps them begin to look at objects like an artist. I tell them all the time, "You use your brain to make art just as much as you use your hands!" I worked very hard to keep it from being a frustrating lesson for the students who weren't quite ready. I made sure they each knew that I just wanted them to TRY this drawing, and that it was just practice and we wouldn't be hanging them up in the hallway. second grade first grade first grade kindergarten second grade first grade first grade second grade The next step was to introduce kids to the concept of shading- showing the darks and lights, the highlights and shadows. Again, some kids were not quite ready to grasp this, but some did great! first grade kindergarten first grade kindergarten second grade I am interested to see if this drawing practice makes a difference in the observational drawings we'll do in the future!
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