Educators understand and apply knowledge of student growth and development
I had the opportunity to try out a really cool art project with my grade 5/6 class. We made pastel drawin
gs inspired by Picasso portraits. I did not however just show the students a Picasso and then ask them to replicate it. We did the project in stages. First we played a game with dice. Each number on the dice corresponded with a different facial feature drawn like Picasso. When a student rolled the dice, they would pick a corresponding facial feature and then replicate it on a whiteboard. They did this until they had a completed portrait. Because it was on a whiteboard, they were allowed to
erase and try again as many times as they needed to feel comfortable with what they were doing. Once the students felt confident in their drawing abilities, I gave them a piece of black construction paper and chalk pastels and they created their masterpieces. The students were highly engaged with this activity on a Friday afternoon and it gave us all an opportunity to laugh and have fun after a week of hard work.