Drawing Animals and Trees

Artist: Maider López
Technique: Photography, sculpture, and art action
School Zuhaisti PS
Academic year: 2011–12
Related areas and topics: Science, Languages and Literature
Teacher: Arantza Cruz

Objectives:

Look for new forms of writing, recreational and creative, whilst carrying out questions relating to psychomotor functions (drawing with the body, movement in space, etc.) and group interaction is promoted.

Materials:

Foam sheets, card, scissors, tape, camera, classroom objects, and furniture.

Project:

Children search in the dictionary for names of animals and trees and look up pictures of them in reference books and on the Internet.
3 exercises are set to involve writing and drawing using the information compiled.
Firstly, it is proposed to draw the names and the silhouettes of the animals with everyday objects.
Any object or furniture from the class can be used (tables, pencils, pencil cases) and the classroom becomes the “paper” on which to draw.
The activity implies considering the scale, organizing the space, taking into account the proportions and the perspective.
Sometimes you have to look at the objects on the ground or on a table from a height.
Photographs are taken of the drawings taking into account the frame, perspective, etc.
In a second writing exercise, each student produces a three dimensional letter by joining together several balanced pieces of card.
The individual work is completed by putting it all together as joining the letters will generate words.
Photographs are taken of this new way of writing.
Afterwards, each student cuts out leaves from the foam sheets to look like several types of local trees.
The leaves are bunched together to make a collective wood.
The children’s bodies can also be used creatively: they can be the trunk of a walking tree or lying on the ground they become part of a drawing that can only be understood from the air.
Photos are taken of the actions