Envisioning a Public Sculpture

 

After making small sculptures, the students in grades K-1 were ready to learn about large public sculptures.  To do so, I introduced them to  the amazing feat and beauty of Watts Towers by reading this book.


They couldn't believe that one man spent 33 years building a gigantic series of sculptures in his backyard, all by himself!
Next, students were given a piece of paper that had a cut-out of a person to show a sense of scale. After sharing out some ideas for sculptures they might like to build in their own backyard or have in downtown Chicago, they then went to town designing a public sculpture. 
Below are some of the fabulous ideas our students envisioned.   
I was thrilled. 

If we do this again next year, I think we should mail in some of the drawings to the mayor, and suggest they adopt these proposals. 

Observational Drawing by 2nd grade

Students in grade 2 are learning to look closely at objects, and to draw what they see, in preparation for creating still life painting. 

 We talked about how the secret to drawing realistically from observation is looking very closely at all the ins and outs and bumps and lines, and also, drawing very slowly.  Students were encouraged to move their pencil at the speed of an ant crawling along the object.  They were also told to look up a whole lot more than they looked down.  In most cases, the kids were really happy with the level of detail and realism in their drawings.  They surprised themselves, and now they know the secret to drawing that adults seem to forget!  

 
 

Learning About Lines

Students in kindergarten and 1st grade last week learned about how there are many many kinds of lines in our visual world.  We talked about the definition of a line being "a dot that goes for a walk".  We read a book called Lines That Wiggle, which proved that just about anything you can think of can be described using lines. 

 

Students practiced making a variety of lines before they drew their picture.

Next the kindergarteners and 1st graders practiced creating six different kinds of lines.

Then on the other side of their paper, they used lines to make an image of their choice. Some students even used rulers to make super super straight lines in order to form things like houses.

Each artwork was filled with lines, and lines formed all the shapes we could think of.  
 We also tried to fill our whole page with descriptive details and colors, so that our viewers can see what the kindergarteners intend for them to see.

In order to make their art work, the students chose from a variety of drawing materials, which they accessed on their own within the
"drawing studio". 

"It's my birthday party and I'm going in a limo to a place called Lego Land."- Jackson