Capture animals in abstract drawings, finding the geometric shapes that make up animal faces and bodies.

• 1.

  Look at several photographs of animals. Compare and contrast their forms by visually breaking the images into simple geometric shapes. To do this, place a piece of tracing paper over a large, side view of an animal such a horse or an elephant.

• 2.

  With a Crayola® Fine-Line Marker, draw the simple geometric shapes that comprise the animal. An elephant's head and abdomen would be circles, with a long oval for a trunk, and rectangles for legs. Try several different animals.

• 3.

  Tear the edges of construction paper so it looks like a deckle edge.

• 4.

  With markers on construction paper, draw the simple geometric forms that you traced. Combine several simple forms to complete a more complex drawing.

• 5.

  Use Crayola Colored Drawing Chalk to fill in the animal and background. Keep your drawing simple and strong.

• 6.

  Exhibit the works. Ask viewers to identify which animals are portrayed.

Standards

• LA: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade level topics and texts with peers and adults in small or larger groups.
• LA: With guidance and support from adults, focus on a topic, respond to questions and suggestions from peers, and add details to strengthen writing as needed.
• LA: Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.
• LA: Create audio recordings of stories or poems; add drawings or other visual displays to stories or recounts of experiences when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings.
• MATH: Recognize and draw shapes having specified attributes.
• MATH: Understand that shapes in different categories may share attributes, and that the shared attributes can define a larger category.
• SCI: Ask questions about the natural and human-built worlds.
• VA: Use art materials and tools in a safe and responsible manner.
• VA: Select and use subject matter, symbols, and ideas to communicate meaning.

Adaptations

• Students write poems about their Abstract Animals that illustrate a scene where the animal is included. Poetry style can be connected to grade level LA curriculum selection that students have already been exposed to in this school year or a review of a poetry style from a previous year's LA curriculum. Poems can be posted with the Abstract Animals exhibited in the classroom and/or presented in electronic format and when to a classroom electronic file.
• Use the geometry/shapes study to investigate shapes in human forms. Students may combine the human form with their Abstract Animal to write a poem about interactions between the two. Students can present their poems and artwork to small groups or whole class. Presentations can be audio recorded and linked to an uploaded picture of students' Abstract Animals in a classroom electronic file.