…..thanks to Carla Sonheim and her free Kid’s Art Week

I’m always looking for new and fun ways to teach art to my students. Next year I’ll be teaching grades 1,2, and 3. I like to combine a little art history with the elements of design when I introduce a lesson. Carla’s Picasso Dogs is perfect. The kids will learn a little bit about Picasso, cubism and primary and secondary colours.

Students will be given a small piece of watercolour paper and a pencil or black oil pastel. They will be instructed to draw individual items that pertain to a dog or any animal that they choose. After drawing the first body part they will turn their papers 90 degrees and then draw the second part. They will do this six or seven times and then they will connect all the parts to create their Picasso animal or alien.

Once the parts are all connected the students will be given further instructions to draw lines across the animal to divide it into smaller sections (this is the cubism part). The first animal will use only primary colours. Once that piece is finished they may create a second animal and I will teach them how to mix the primary colours to create secondary colours. This animal will only be painted with secondary colours. The final step is to go over all the pencil lines with a black marker.

For students who work quickly they may draw a third animal and use a combination of primary and secondary colours. Here are my samples: