Wednesday works - Drawing with 1st grade

Ever hear of the book by Mona Brooks, Drawing with Children?  This is my very well used and a little worn copy.  I start out my first lesson for first grade with this simple lesson to see how well they follow directions. 

 Kindergarten does not have Art class with me, the first time I see the students is in first grade and I don't know where they are developmentally yet.   The "Bird on a Branch" lesson helps with that.

This lesson is the time I use to introduce details as the little extras added to pictures to make them unique.  We also talk about all that white space around a picture, that it's called the background and as much a part of the picture as the bird they drew first.

Each part of the bird is drawn using basic shapes such as a colored in dot, a circle, a straight line, etc.  The key is we all draw it together, no working ahead. 

You could use this pieced method to draw just about anything you would like, we just do this birdy because we like it. 

The book details many step by step pictures including this bird, a tropical bird, and a lion.  There are also lessons in gesture drawing, contour drawing, and shadows and lines.