A Movable Classroom: Observation through Field Drawing

One of the highlights of the school year for me was the permeable classroom walls of Ms. Hatcher's 4th-grade science class.

“From testing our complementary-colored windmills, drawing 4-panel comics of the lifecycle of flowers, or practicing our observation skills by drawing trees, Ms. Hatcher and I saw the great benefits of taking the students outside. ”

To practice observational drawing, first students drew the oak tree without looking down at their papers! Next, we drew the tree again; this time, though we could look at our paper, we still observed the tree as much as we did when we couldn’t take our eyes off of it.

The final round of drawing was inspired by Ms. Hatcher’s observation: she noticed the different points of view of the tree in each student's drawing. I was reminded of one of my favorite Art Apart activities, 360 still-life! 

Therefore we added one final drawing: students moved positions from one bench to another and drew the tree once more, noting (and drawing) differences from their previous point of view.

I hope students are inspired over the summer to continue both field drawing outside and cooling off inside with art activities!