Elementary School Lesson Plan (Grades 2-3)

Standard: Students identify the basic structures of animals

Indicator of Achievement: Students understand the physical parts of birds

Standard: Students identify realistic art work

Indicator of Achievement: Students become familiar with Audubon's drawing

Standard: Students are able to select and use subjects and themes in works of art and to create a two dimensional artwork using a variety of techniques

Indicator of Achievement: Students have an increased understanding of how to draw the texture of birds feathers

Materials:

• 9x12" or 12x18" white drawing or construction paper
  
• pencil, eraser
  
• tempera paint
  
• markers
  
• 2" sponge cubes

Vocabulary:

• Composition - the organization of mass, line and color in an artwork
  
• Contour - the outline or edge of a mass or shape
  
• Realistic - a style that looks like the actual object

The Osprey and the Otter and the Salmon,
John James Audubon ASU Art Museum


Preparation: Show examples of one of America's most famous illustrators, Audubon, to your students. (See jjaudubon.com) Any other books or magazines on birds are also extremely helpful. Look for books on exotic birds or those found in the rain forest. While looking at the birds, discuss their body, neck, head, bill, and feet shapes and sizes. Notice the arrangement of feathers, their shapes and sizes plus body placement.

Activity: Have the students pick a bird species they would like to draw. They need to determine paper size and composition direction before they start. You will find that most students have an innate sense or comfort level of how they like to draw. It is usually easier for most students to start with a contour line drawing of the bird. This is achieved by drawing the outside shape or at least the main body parts without all of the feathers. Shown below are a few examples of feather textures they might like to use.

After the birds are drawn, the student may wish to add additional details for interest and to balance his composition. Added objects may be branches, leaves, nests, more birds, clouds, or shoreline to name a few. Birds are colored in with markers and the backgrounds are sponge painted in. Damp sponge cubes are dipped in paint. Excess paint is wiped off and then the cube is pressed lightly on the paper. More than one color may be sponge painted in an area to achieve interesting visual results. Students may also go back into their drawings and outline the bird and all the feathers in a dark marker color for added emphasis.

Assessment: Ask the students what they did to achieve the realistic image. Does it have to do with the lines they drew, the feather texture areas, colors used, or possibly the background details?

Additional lesson ideas: The students may want to mat their drawings on another piece of construction paper. If the students like to paint, the bird may be painted in. This bird may be drawn again in a smaller or larger format, using only black and white, stressing texture. The students may attempt an abstraction of this bird, using unrealistic colors and size distortion or simplification.

Gay Kohl, Paradise Valley School District, AZ