This week, I finally pulled out Mona Brooks'
Drawing With Children, and did the first lesson with my students. Students use the five elements (dot, circle, straight line, curved line, and angled line) to produce pictures. In the first lesson, students draw a bird on a branch with leaves and berries. They can add whatever details they want.
My school used to have a wonderful MonArt teacher (MonArt is Mona+Art, as in Mona Brooks). Her name was Mrs. Green. Mrs. Green had students trace their pencil drawings with black marker, then fill in the space with markers, oil pastels, and paint. (
Here is Mrs. Green's Cat in the Hat project. And
here is her Hundertwasser project. And
here is her tulips on newspaper project.) So, I had my students use thin black marker to outline, and fill in with crayons. No white space allowed.
Today, we did lesson 2 (level 3), a carousel horse. Some students chose to make a carousel horse, and some chose to make a real horse. Despite my inexpert example, my 4th graders' work turned out awesome!
I'm looking forward to using
Drawing With Children on a regular basis throughout next year.
This is what I'll be using when we begin year one. It takes a little more reading and preparation on my part, but I think it'll be great!
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