Today I had the pleasure of teaching my friend's first art lesson of the school year! Her awesome 5th grade class was nice to work with especially given the nice facility loaded with materials to use and ample space! I went into the lesson not knowing what level the students are at in terms of what they already know about shading, basic contour, composition, proportioning, how to use the oil pastel...So I didn't get too conceptual :)
We started off doing a quick warm up on light source, and how that affects a still life, or any for for that matter. On one side of a small piece of paper, students drew their light source. On the other side, we drew the Van Gogh style vase, the table line, and the 2 kinds of sunflowers that he illustrates in his painting, "Still Life With Fifteen Flowers".
I asked the class what kinds of shapes and textures these 2 flowers had, and had them be very specific, because this would be important when adding the texture and emphasis to their drawings. We also had two Special Needs students: one without sight and one with a cochlear implant. (So honored to work with them!!) They described the flowers as fluffy, round, spiky, with long petals.
They shaded and highlighted the mini composition, then we moved into the final piece, doing the same steps. I demonstrated how to do the impressionist style "strokes" - a broken line that follows a form. I didn't push it too much, as I didn't want them to be overwhelmed for their first art lesson. Here is the hallway display for Ms. Ruxton's class:
