You One fourth grader's printmaking design will be chosen to be in the back of the yearbook this year. We began with a discussion on what makes an expert? I knew from having done this project (or similar) that kids this age are very hard on themselves when they don't produce a perfect drawing. Even in following a Youtube tutorial they were getting quite upset that their drawing was not like the one in the tutorial. They were being very hard on themselves. The next set of 4th graders I gave markers, the permanent kind. Kids relaxed a bit knowing their mistakes could not be changed. I also have tons of quotes about the value of mistakes posted all around the art room.
One child who would not even begin drawing, I placed him at the old projector a mom gave me last year. He was so excited that he was able to produce his drawing. I know tracing is looked down upon in general; even I don't generally allow it. But in this case, the child was not making even one mark. This was one way to get him drawing.
My next assignment was going to be using their sketches and then making skinny versions of them, thicker versions of them, mixing and combining features from various birds. The idea behind this exercise would be to allow the young artists to mix and match their favorite features and in this way really making a unique parrot, not just a copy they copied off of google images or youtube.
We use a basic composition book as a sketchbook, they are affordable, durable and not as intimidating as say a real sketchbook might be.
Here, this child started playing around with changing wing placement of the bird and changing the style of the feathers in the wings. My next week's lesson already being discovered by a select few of kids who are way ahead of me already.
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