The first project of the year for 5th graders is complete! Our first class on this lesson was a practice in contour line drawing. We are so used to drawing from our imagination that it takes practice to get good at drawing what we actually see. The students drew several practice drawings of a seashell. They had to draw a
blind contour-drawing without looking at their paper and a
continuous line-drawing without picking up their pencil. These exercises make us better at using our eyes to help draw a picture. The following class, the students did a contour line drawing of their
shoes. The drawings turned out so good, we decided to add some color.
Today, they finished their shoes by choosing a
color scheme. We added a background color that fit our scheme. They make a pretty impressive display in the hallway!
Third grade learned about 1-point perspective this week with these great scarecrow pictures! The lesson was inspired by these great scarecrows
from A Faithful Attempt. First, we drew a picture of a scarecrow,
thinking about all the things we would need from around the house to
make the heads, bodies, hands, feet, etc. Then we used 1-point
perspective to make a field. We first had to add a horizon line, find a
vanishing point, and then draw the lines of perspective to make the
field look like it went on for miles. We used colored pencils to color
the details, and finished off the background with washable markers and
water. 
