The Dot, by Peter Reynolds
For the first lesson this year, I read The Dot by Peter Reynolds. It is a story about a little girl named Vashti who thinks she can't draw. Her art teacher tells her "to make a mark and see where it takes you" She then jabs the paper with her pencil. Next art class Vashti finds that her teacher has framed her dot in "swirly gold" From here she is inspired to create many kinds of dots.
Students traced a circle and cut it out. Then they glued it to the page, and made it part of their drawing.
Students traced a circle and cut it out. Then they glued it to the page, and made it part of their drawing.
No Roses for Harry, by Gene Zion
We read No Roses for Harry! by Gene Zion. Then we talked about what simple shapes we could use to draw a dog. Students then had the opportunity to create their own. They outlined their drawings with Sharpies, and colored them with construction paper crayons.
Castles
We looked at photographs of castles. We talked about what simple shapes we could use to draw a castle. The class learned how to draw a cylinder. Then, students were able to create their own. The children went over their drawings with Sharpie, then used construction paper crayons to add color.