Apple Picking, Pumpkin Patches, & Scarecrows - Kids Drawing Class
Topic: Kids Art Class
We've been drawing on apple picking, pumpkin patch, and scarecrow themes the past few weeks in the kids drawing class at Rockland Library. In my apple bough drawing I wanted the kids to get an idea for using circles (the apples) to make patterns. There is a straight line, a curving 'S' line, a circle, and a spiral. Then I wanted them to see how the branch is also a curving line but it is broken up. I want the kids to make a flow, a connection, between the objects they put in their picture. There is also an apple pie and a blob of ice cream which they asked for!
For the pumpkins I wanted them to learn a bit about giving a circle some form. We tried observing how a roll of masking tape when viewed in one position looks like a circle but when viewed from other positions the circle becomes gradually a thinner oval (ellipse), until it disappears altogether into a straight line. This was a hard concept for a six year old. The literal mind cannot yet see a thick roll of tape as a straight line - afterall, it is thick! Too late I realized the trouble. It was a trauma. Such is the experience of verbal language and it's inevitable misunderstandings.
The kids learned that a scarecrow is meant to scare crows from eating the crops. Why would a scarecrow be able to scare crows? "Because he looks scary," said one child. (She may even have said ghoulish.) No, not because he's ugly. Why can he scare a crow? "Because crows are scared of people!" a child finally exclaimed. Yes! And sometimes tin pie plates or tin cans are tied to the scarecrow to blow around jangling and help with the scaring. In our scene the crows are not afraid of the scarecrow. The poor fellow's hat is on the ground and a crow sits on his bare burlap head.
The apple picking scene was inspired by a Carl Larson painting. Drawing the scene would have to be a stand in for apple picking this year. When I went to go for apples that past weekend, the orchard was all sold out. There had not been much of a crop this year because of all the bad weather we'd had.
Posted by Catinka Knoth
at 12:01 AM EDT
Updated: Monday, 12 October 2009 11:15 PM EDT
Posted by Catinka Knoth
at 2:07 PM EDT
