drawing castles...

One of my favorite projects for Kindergarten is when we bust out the blocks and draw castles!

Although the kiddos love to build their own castles... I build one for this drawing (or sometimes my "big kids" that have class before them will build it for me!). We try to make it somewhat symmetrical, and I put it in the table that's in the middle of the room... that way most students have a similar view of the shapes that it takes to build it.

This is one of the first art projects where the kinders learn to draw from observation. We are usually just beginning our shape units, and so they get great practice at drawing the shapes that they see... and it's an excellent way to exercise their brains with spatial relationships.

I usually start the lesson by giving them a demonstration on the SMARTBoard of where to begin and how to "build" by drawing the shapes on their paper. But then I just let them go and their final castles are always amazing! Of course... they have to add details like kings, queens, and dragons! 

What materials do you have at home that you could set up and draw?

drawing from observation: shoes

Fifth grade's second attempt at observational drawing was shoes! 

Quite a bit more detail than the apples, 

and it resulted in some amazing artwork. 

I think the hardest part for the kids was getting the outline, or shape, of the shoe. Once that was accomplished, they were really great at picking out the details, down to the tiniest holes in the leather. 

Our goal was to spend one day doing observational drawing before our next project, but they were SO into getting the details right that they really wanted to work on them another day. So we did!

I love the different viewpoints that some students drew!

Look at those details!

drawing from observation: apples

In the past, we have slacked a little on the "drawing from observation" aspect of art... definitely hitting on it at least once a year, but not often enough. So this year, for fifth grade, I made it a goal of mine to incorporate an observational drawing day in between every major lesson throughout the year. 

Our first? Apples. 

I provided an apple for each student. Their first direction was to draw the apple. When this was done, I told them to take a bite. (They loved this!) Then, draw the apple again. And they would continue to do this until class was over... paying close attention to how the lines and shape of the apple change with each bite.

In the beginning, many students were scared of not drawing the apple correctly, but I was extremely impressed with the outcome of all of my students' drawings! Some were super realistic, some more abstract, but all resembled apples!