Don't Forget to Be Owlsome!

Hoo Hoo Made these adorable Owl Babies?

Pre-K students created these so, so cute owl babies inspired by the book Owl Babies written by Martin Waddell and illustrated by Patrick Benson.

 

They made the owl baby bodies out of papier mache one week, then the next week they collaged buttons, feather, fabric, and pipe cleaners to create eyes, feathers, wings, and talons. We looked at a lot of pictures of real baby owls for inspiration. We also read a great book called Owl Moon written by Jane Yolen and illustrated by John Schoenherr.

 

Pre-K students felt that we really needed to make nests for the owl babies. So students glued twigs, grasses and leaves onto paper plates so their owl babies would be all comfy and cozy. 

Once their owl babies were complete, the children drew them from observation and gave them names (the owl babies in the book Owl Babies are named Sarah, Percy and Bill). 

4th Grade Figures in Motion

Figuring out the Figure

"I can only draw stick figures" is a common sentiment uttered by adults, older children, and adolescents. The thing is, this is never actually true. Whether you will become an artist or not, learning to draw is important and useful for a myriad of reasons. There are so many different genres and purposes of drawing, many of which are directly related to the STEM fields. Drawing is a key part of industrial design, graphic design, engineering, architecture, science, etc. Learning about the proportions and anatomy of the human figure and how it works directly relates to math and science. Besides these connections to non-fine art fields, drawing is important for its own sake. Where would we be culturally without art? All young children draw, it's just that some children become discouraged about their drawing ability at some point and cease the activity. Just as we all need to learn math, reading and writing, etc., deep learning in all of the arts is extremely important in order to discover new ways of expressing ourselves, and to deeply appreciate and understand the art we encounter in public spaces, museums, galleries, books, etc.

In this assignment, 4th graders used rectangular pieces of paper to arrange figures in motion. They thought about what physical activity they would like to represent their figure doing - dancing, playing basketball, soccer, swimming, etc. They arranged the head, neck, torso, upper arms, forearms, thighs, calves and feet to show a pose of someone in the middle of the activity they chose. Breaking the figure down into these essential parts helps students understand how to depict figures in various poses. Making sure to depict upper arms, forearms, thighs and calves allows for figures that can have their elbows and knees bent. After the essential parts of the figure, represented by rectangular pieces of paper, were glued in place, students drew facial features, hair, clothes, and backgrounds with oil pastels. This assignment helps students understand how to depict the figure in various poses. Drawing skills are not a matter of talent or no talent; they can be practiced, developed and strengthened by anyone.