Draw on This—Day Six: The Parrot

Today my young students took on another drawing challenge using our lines, circles and dots and the step by step approach as presented by the Monart method.

Students were challenged to follow my instruction to draw a parrot. We started by examining our blank paper and using our finger to trace out where we think we should draw our parrot. This was like “blocking in” but with using only our imagination and not a drawing utensil. Once complete, students were encouraged to add details as they saw fit.

FRUSTRATION

All of the kids did great but I did notice frustration by some. This is so normal—to become frustrated sometimes when drawing. It can be hard to accept when you can't get what you want to appear on your paper.

This was a tougher drawing assignment. I encouraged all of the kids to talk about their frustrations. Talking about what you like or don’t like about your work can help to relieve drawing anxiety and help us to re-frame our situation and see how we can find the positives instead of negatives. Here are the kinds of things that I like hearing from my students:

• I made a mistake with this line, but then I turned that line into something else, something better.
• I don't like my drawing. Next time I am going to try to do this part (referencing specific element) differently.
  
• My drawing doesn't look like what I was trying to copy but I like the way it looks different.
  

There is always a positive in there somewhere. :-)

Sadly, this was another “no camera” day so I have no pictures to post.