Lesson At A Glance

A brief overview of each step. Buttons jump to each section for detailed information.

5 Min -show how to move a tool around and trace it

10 Min – Set up to paint, and fill shapes with imaginative color

15 Min -Use tool parts to design a robot face. Slideshow examples.

10 Min -Draw and color your own robot face.

10 Min -Go over the watercolor with oil pastels

5 Min –  finish their oil pastels or make an art-holder (portfolio)

2 Min – Everyone helps

SCROLL & TEACH

LESSONPLAN

Each section is a different color. Read over once and then you can SCROLL & TEACH using any device you like. It’s designed to work best with your phone.

While your students are working, encourage them to talk about pumpkins, faces, and fall. However, steer away from “scary” topics (Halloween, ghosts…) for any more sensitive students.

Always try to greet students as they come in and kneel down when you can so that you are on their level.

Artists’ Choice

Encourage students to work with one piece of paper for a while. If someone uses the phrase, “free draw”, explain that artists’ choice is something only artists can do, while free-draw is something anyone can do. You want to use the phrase to elevate the students’ expectations of their work.

Everyone should take their time with the work and make a finished piece of art. Limiting the paper can also help kids focus on the work. If someone finishes in super-fast time, ask them what more they can do to the existing paper. Ask again several times – unless they appear overly frustrated; then you can allow them to move on to a new work.

Preview the lesson for next week:

As you talk to them, begin tracing a tool with a pencil, onto a sheet of paper.

Set up the tools in a tool “store” for the kids to choose from or set tools at their table as they work. Have everyone share, passing tools around if someone else wants to use the same one. They can use up to 3 or 4.

Students trace around one tool at a time. Make sure to have them move each tool 2 or 3 times before deciding where to draw it. Remind them that this is their decision to be the designer, or boss, of their shapes.

Try to get tools without any dangerous edges. Even then, be cautious and make sure you know your students and that they understand that tools can be heavy and sometimes have sharp or pinching parts. Explain that they’re like scissors, and you have to prove you are mature enough to get to handle them.

Using watercolors, your artists can invent colors and fill in each tool. Anything goes! Encourage wild colors and creativity but if they want to do it realistic, that’s ok too. Set them aside to dry when finished, and make sure everyone has put their name on the work.

Display the examples in the slideshow. Have all the students choose parts and cut them out.

Do NOT provide glue or tape until a design is finished. Every student gets to have parts only for these 3 facial features:

1. Eyes and eyebrows
2. Nose
3. Mouth

If you do more than that, the project becomes endless, with hair, bows, hats, etc.

Have students change their face idea several times, to try different robot designs. Having a bunch of parts helps this happen. It should be a lot of fun with laughter at the silly faces. The point is to practice changing designs, or composition. Don’t stress them out if they don’t want to try any at all, but you can ask if you can show them one idea that you’ll put right back. If they don’t like it, then they designed it to go back to the first idea, and that still reinforces the idea.

Anything goes for this quick fun project! Mention that this is a new design they’re making.

Get out the oil pastels and add at least 2 or 3 colors to each tool area, blending them together. You can shade or just fill in with fun color and textures. Have fun and be expressive with color and bold outlines.

Explain how a portfolio can protect artwork and make it easier to carry around. Decorate them with markers and put names on them.

• Wash hands
• Super-wash brushes if used
• Put art supplies away
• Wipe tables & toss trash
• Remove any smocks (last)
• Check for items on floors and tables

Flat tools that don’t have a sharp edge are best: wrenches, tin snips, large washers (metal disks with a hole like a donut), all kinds of clamps, screwdrivers, and even sockets for a socket wrench to make circles.

Print all of your PDFs from the lesson plan and cut any references apart as needed.

section below coming later today

STUDENT’S

MATERIALS

• 14″ x 17″ Sketch Paper
• 11″ x 15″ watercolor paper
• 2B Pencil
• 4B pencil
• Ebony pencil
• Black Sharpie
• Markers
• India ink
• Ink dip pen with metal nib (not too sharp a point)
• Soft compressed charcoal sticks (not pencils)
• Canvas pencil (dark gray colored pencil)
• White erasers
• Kneaded erasers
• Acrylic paints
• Oil pastels
• Blender sticks (stumps)
• Sandpaper boards (to clean blenders)
• Paper palette pad, or disposable trays/plates
• 11″ x 14″ Canvas (loose or from real canvas pad)
• Canvas boards (optional)
• Tape – blue painter’s tape
• Brushes – All sizes

Week 9: Pumpkin Painting Party 

The week before Halloween, we practice painting fun, simple faces in tempera paints, and then paint a face on a real pumpkin using grown-up acrylic paints. It’s also a great time for a party: have parents bring some drinks or snacks, and have students each bring a small pumpkin to paint. Bring the pumpkins in a small cardboard box to take it home while still wet!

Week 10: Zig Zag Art

Students will create an interactive color oil pastel work that changes from day to night when you change your viewing angle. They’ll use their memory to draw their own home and yard, so it’s a personal piece. This also takes away any worries about content, so students can focus on the colors and different day and night versions of the scene. We’ll use this fun project to learn about viewpoints, lighting effects, 3D artwork, interactive artwork, and the work of 20th century abstract artist, Yaacov Agam.