Purpose: Students practice drawing and close looking. Great for teaching students to draw what they actually see versus what they think they see.
Materials/Playing Space: Pencils, Everyday objects, or images of art works
Description:
Step One: Pick objects for students to draw. Place them in front of them. These can be everyday objects from around the classroom (i.e. stapler, pencil box, scissors, erasers, etc.)
Step Two: Have students pick a point on the object where the eye can begin its slow journey around the contour or edge of the object.
Remind students that the eye is like a snail, barely crawling as it begins its journey. When the eye begins to move, so should the hand holding the pencil.
Remind students that at no time should they look at their hand while drawing.
Step Three: Have students draw the entire contour of the object without lifting their pencil from the paper.
Notes/Sidecoaching: Emphasize to the students that they shouldn’t look at their paper while drawing and that their drawings will not look exactly like their subject.
Integration Ideas:
Reading: great for practicing on focusing on the whole picture and important details
Writing: Have students write a list of adjectives to describe their object before drawing. After drawing, have them add to their list based on what they observed. You can also have students write about what their drawing actually came out looking like versus what the object looks like.
Social Studies: have students practice drawing parts of a portrait of a historical figure or scene. After drawing, ask them about what kind of details they noticed that they didn’t notice before and what those details might mean.