Lesson At A Glance

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

5 Min – Demo making a crazy creature.

10 Min – Drawing game with starter pages and parts reference

15 Min – Choose colored paper & make patterns & textures.

10 Min – Students get 2 fans to cut into springs.

15 Min – Glue paper to cardboard base. Then cut first shape and attach springs to both objects.

15 Min – Keep making smaller and smaller shapes and attaching.

If Time – Color your crazy creature with markers!

5 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.

Ask them 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.

Have students gather around and watch a demo of how to create a crazy creature.

Using a black marker, draw a few parts to begin making your large creature. Make these 2 important points:

• Draw the parts large enough so you have a big crazy creature instead of a tiny one.
• Add some of your own lines to connect the parts if you need to.

Have the students make suggestions for you to draw on the demo creature, but don’t spend too much time on it. This can be finished later in the class while they’re working on other things.

Fun idea: Make some parts small and some large to make your creature even crazier!

Have students play a fun game of Crazy Creature in the round. Remind the students that this is a fun game that only artists can do!

Drawing in the Round

Gather up groups of 3 or more and let them create a drawing in the round. You can also do this with the entire class as one group if you have a large table or group of tables. Each artist gets a starter page or blank regular sized copy paper, and a pencil or a black marker. Decide as a group if your pages will be bathtub position or shower position (horizontal or vertical). It might help your class remember to pass the drawings if you use music, and pause it as a signal to stop every 2 or 3 minutes.

Rules:

1. You can only draw one creature part each turn. Remember that a nose is one part, and a pair of eyes is one part, but a head is lots of parts.
2. Be sure to draw the kinds of things that parents will be proud to see when you show it to them. (This helps keep things appropriate without bringing up the idea of innapropriate. Just stating “don’t be innapropriate” can get their ideas moving in bad directions).
3. Begin each turn by thinking about what to add. What will look cool on this new creature?
4. You cannot draw the same thing twice.
5. You cannot draw over someone else’s part or erase it.
6. You cannot make the drawing look bad or messy on purpose! Remember to do your best work.
7. Take your time. It’s not a race.

Everyone should write their name on the first paper that they are starting with, and pass to the right/receive from the left. After you’re all finished, students get to keep the one with their name on it. You can let them all vote on the best one, since they all worked on it together. If you have the resources, you can make everyone a copy of the best one.

If there’s time, artists can color in their creature with markers at the end of class.

You can use construction paper but it is flimsier, and it will fade and become very brittle over time.

Kids can choose 4 colored papers. Try to help them pick colors that go well together!

Have everyone draw on their papers with markers to create patterns and textures. They should fill each page (on one side only) and it’s ok to do more than one texture and more than one colored marker on each paper.

Have folded “fans” of black, white, or other colored paper ready ahead of time and help students cut them into square springs.

From the Prep section: Make your fans by folding a sheet of paper into thirds, like a letter going into an envelope. Open it back up and cut along the lines to create 3 sheets that are around 8.5″ x 3 and 2/3″. Fold each one like a fan with 4 sections by folding in half twice, and then unfolding and refolding into a zig-zag. This is ready for your young artists to cut into little springs. You’ll need 2 fans for each student.

Students should cut a square piece off the ends off of their fans to create a square spring. Cut the fans all up into these square springs and save in a pile for making the stack.

Talk to your students about texture instead of pictures. Texture is interesting INSIDE a shape, but it doesn’t have shape itself. The shapes that we use today will be cut out of different papers and stacked up to make a 3-D picture. Show several texture samples, then show the finished stackup sample so they can see what it is supposed to look like.

Instruct students on how to put together the base and first level of their artwork.

Pick one sheet of textured paper, and glue the whole thing to the cardboard base. Then choose another piece of paper, and cut out a big blob-shape that is almost the size of the base but a little smaller. The blob can have wiggly edges or angled edges, but any shape will look good!

Set up 6 little springs on the base, and set up the blob shape so that it rests on them and floats above the base. Then remove the blob and begin gluing all of the springs to the bottom of the blob, using a permanent glue stick and LOTS of glue.

Finally, glue the bottom of all the springs and place the whole thing onto the base. Be careful to not get glue on the blob shape – just on the springs. Press it down all over. It will rise back up when you’re done!

Have everyone draw on their papers with markers to create patterns and textures. They should fill up one side of each page. It’s ok to do more than one texture and more than one colored marker on each paper.

Continue adding levels

Keep picking your textured papers and cutting them into unique shapes. Be sure to remember to make the blobs smaller each time to that each layer is visible! You should end up with several little shapes at the 4th level. Too many layers the top will fall over, especially if you have construction paper.

Have students color their crazy creature with markers

• 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

Make “fans” of paper ahead of time. 

Make your fans by folding a sheet of paper into thirds, like a letter going into an envelope. Open it back up and cut along the lines to create 3 sheets that are around 8.5″ x 3 and 2/3″. Fold each one like a fan with 4 sections by folding in half twice, and then unfolding and refolding into a zig-zag. This is ready for your young artists to cut into little springs. You’ll need 2 fans for each student. Don’t cut into square springs yourself; let the kids do that part.

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

Week 30: Near and Far

To understand the basic idea of drawing from a viewpoint (perspective), artists need to learn how to look. Students are introduced to the ideas of viewpoints and then cover up one eye and use their table to see how the horizon edge is behind a toy figure instead of beneath it. The idea of near and far also shows students how drawing small makes things look like they are farther away. It’s a great lesson of artistic discovery, and most kids are very proud of the work they do.

Week 31: Layered Landscape

Students will use lots of layers of colored papers to create a wonderful landscape. Circles can be stacked for colorful clouds and hills.