1st Grade - Drawing With Shapes Unit

This unit contains three scaffolded lessons that help students develop the technique of using simple organic and geometric shapes to create a drawing.

In the first lesson, with students who are just beginning their first grade year, the objective is to identify how some artists have used shapes to create their art, and to practice identification of shapes. Students also gain practice in using scissors to cut some basic geometric shapes as well as the newly introduced 'organic' shape. With squares of primary and secondary colors, students make a shape quilt.

Quilt Square - Basic Design

Quilt Square - Class Set

Quilt Square - Extended Design

In the second lesson of this unit, students were introduced to the artist Charley Harper. This artist's work is inspired by the natural world, which is very appropriate for our Alaskan students. His work very clearly demonstrates how he uses simple shapes to create a drawing of a complex object.  Students were introduced to felt boards with which they could practice manipulating various organic and geometric felt shapes to create a "drawing." They experienced the need to position background shapes before laying down foreground shapes. After their felt board experimentation, students drew a picture of their felt board creation in a coloring book outline style, being careful to draw the shapes they had used in the felt board "drawing."

Felt Board Drawing to Pencil Drawing

Owl - Basic Marker Outline

Fish - Color Added

Bunny - Color Added

Abstract - Color Added

In the third and last lesson of this unit, students continued drawing with shapes. They worked from the same animal photos they had seen in the previous lesson. We began by identifying the basic shapes that might make up the parts of the creatures being viewed. Then students started out their drawing by choosing either a circle or oval stencil to help them get started. From there, they were able to add organic or geometric shapes to finish the drawing on their own.  This time the final project was done in separate foreground, midground and background parts, resulting in a pop up, 3-D piece of art. Students used crayon to color a background that described the creature's habitat. They had the option to rip paper or use existing rectangles, for more habitat and to create the pop up to support their creature. They drew, colored and bubble cut out their creature, to glue onto the pop up. 

Woodpecker - Un-torn Pop Up

Woodpecker - Torn Pop Up

Owl - Torn Pop Up

Fish - Torn Pop Up