Drawing Lessons, Kindergarten 301

This is the third in a series of five blog posts about teaching kindergartners to draw recognizable pictures.  Drawing Lessons, Kindergarten 101 offers my ideas and materials for a directed drawing center.  Drawing Lessons 201 shares how to help kindergarteners create a booklet where they transform shapes into common objects.  Today's post, Drawing Lessons 301, is similar to the last post in that I'm describing how students create a booklet based on shapes. 

My Yummy Lunch is a whole class, directed drawing activity where children learn to draw common objects from shapes.  It is also a lesson in brainstorming and categories.  In addition, children learn the concept of overlapping, always intriguing to young minds.

Here are images of all the pages for an old copy of the booklet, My Yummy Lunch.  

You can click here for a downloadable, printable version of the entire booklet.  As you can see from this photo of the cover, it is a MUCH more professional-looking version, thanks to the modern-day wonders of Google Drawing!

The lessons for My Yummy Lunch can take place over the course of a week.  Start on Monday by reading a favorite book about lunch.  Here are a few of my favorites:

After reading and discussing the book, share YOUR copy of the booklet, My Yummy Lunch.

Yes, I do think you should share a completed copy of the booklet so the students have an idea of what they will be doing.  However, you'll want to explain that they will each be able to choose what kind of foods they illustrate and write about.  Here are some ideas, if the brainstorming needs some "lightning bolts:"

square: different kinds of sandwiches like cheese, turkey, ham, pb and j or maybe a bento box! Please notice how some of the sandwich "filling" peeks out around the perimeter of the bread.

circle: different kinds of round fruits like apples, oranges, peaches, plums, kiwi. I also have had students suggest bowls of applesauce, fruit cocktail, yogurt, and pudding.  Cookies are obvious possibilities.

triangle:  different kinds of tortilla chips, crackers, a slice of pizza, wedges of watermelon or cake.

beverage:  milk or water (nothing to color but ask them to draw a striped straw, maybe?), juice, chocolate milk, lemonade

I always proceed by having the children complete the two pages for the square-shaped food on Monday.  I have them carefully trace the square on page 1, modeling for them how to make "sharp corners." Then, on page 2, have them brainstorm the sandwich ideas as a class before choosing their crayons to color the "fillings."

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, continue to have the children complete the two pages pertaining to the next shape.  These sessions might only take 15 minutes of class time.

On Friday, the children can complete their booklet by coloring the last page to correspond with their own food choices.  I like to keep the front cover as is (no coloring) because it doesn't reveal what the book is all about.  This is a good literature concept for the class: sometimes the cover of a book makes us wonder what's inside!

Drawing Lessons, Kindergarten 201

In my last post, Drawing Lessons, Kindergarten 101, I wrote about how I used directed drawing materials in a kindergarten center.  In this post, I want to share a whole class lesson in directed drawing which results in a booklet individual students will create.  This was a very successful project used for many, many years by at least one of my colleagues and me.

The first few pages of the booklet, entitled Drawing Lessons, are pictured above.  Here are images of the second, third, and fourth series of pages:

If you click here, you can download a template for photocopying.  In this way, you can photocopy the booklet for each of your students to complete!

This is a fun booklet to work on over the course of one week.  Here's how:

Start on Monday by reading a book such as The Shape of Things by Dayle Ann Dodds, so that the students can begin thinking how common objects are formed out of basic shapes.

After reading the book, show the children your sample copy of the book. (Yes, you will want to go ahead and create your own version so they can envision the end product.  This is directed drawing, after all!)

Still on Monday, have the children follow clear directions to color and add features to the first series of three pages, the series, "A circle can become a face." 

On Tuesday and Wednesday, proceed in the same manner to complete the series of pages, "A square can become my house," and "A rectangle can become my tree."  On Thursday, depending on the needs of your class, you might brainstorm objects other than a cookie which are formed from an oval.  If your students are capable, they might be able to work independently to create a dog with an oval body or an oval plate or an oval balloon, etc.

On Friday, discuss with the class how illustrators often choose their favorite picture from the book to be the one they copy on the cover.  Have the students illustrate the cover in this way.  Ask them to complete the dedication page, too, with the name of someone in their family who would appreciate the dedication.

My next post will feature yet another directed drawing booklet!  I hope you will continue reading!

Drawing Lessons, Kindergarten 101

This, of course, is an absolutely wonderful kindergarten drawing of a happy little girl holding hands with her smiling teacher.  But how many times have you looked at a child's drawing and asked yourself, "What is this?!"  

There are many resources which help children to develop their ability to draw something.  In recent years, directed drawing has become a popular kind of lesson.  There are numerous youtube videos where real artists teach students to draw popular animals, historical figures, and characters from children's literature.  Here is a screenshot from one such video showing how to illustrate Martin Luther King Jr.:

You can have your students follow along as a whole class
watching the smart board and drawing on whiteboards and/or paper
OR in centers using tablets or laptops.

You can also download free and inexpensive directed drawing resources from Teachers Pay Teachers which students can use in centers.  In fact, my most popular, favorite center for many, many years was my drawing center. Here is how it worked:

I purchased one of the many step-by-step drawing books like this one available on Amazon right now:

Here's the link, if you want to buy it.

Then, I cut off the bottom half of each page and laminated the tops to be task cards like this:

Next, I created a paper like this one below which is your freebie download:

As a class, the children learned how to work in the drawing center. I took out one drawing task card and projected it on the smart board side-by-side with an "I can draw a _____" paper.  Each child had her own copy of the drawing paper. Students wrote their names and copied the name of what they were drawing at the tops of their papers.  Then, we had to learn what each of the symbols represented: a pencil, a crayon, a colored pencil and a marker. While I demonstrated on the smart board, everyone took out a pencil and followed the step-by-step directions to create the drawing projected on the task card. Then, they repeated the same steps to create the drawing with the other tools (crayon, colored pencil, and marker.) 

After several practice sessions, the kindergartners were ready to use the task cards and drawing papers independently in the drawing center.  My centers were typically 15 minutes in length and most students would complete a couple of drawing lessons each time they visited the drawing center.

I have a few other favorite lessons for teaching children to draw more representationally so please look forward to the next blog posts for other ideas for drawing lessons!