1st Graders Purple Crayons!

The students really liked this lesson. The librarian told me the other day that all the 'Harold' books had flown out the door after I had done the bulletin board. I was a really simple lesson to teach. It took 4 sessions. The first session we read the book 'Harold and the Purple Crayon' by Crockett Johnson and we practiced using our imagination to make objects out of cut pieces of construction paper. The students were not allowed to glue this first session, they could only play with the pieces, in order to help them come up with ideas. We then closed the first session by sharing some ideas they had come up with while experimenting. I posted all the ideas for all the class on a piece of 18x24" paper and posted it throughout the lesson. The second and third session the students worked on creating their images. I discussed the idea of details with them and why it is so important for artists to make sure their work has tons of it. They were allowed to use scissors to cut their pieces and as they worked, I went around helping and making sure they all had concrete ideas that they were working on (to make sure I didn't get any "I don't know's' when I asked the question What are you making?) The last session was spent adding details using pink, purple, and white oil pastels, crayons, and a silver marker. In addition to their finished piece we discussed why artists give titles to their work and I had them each create a title for their piece.

Here are some pictures from the lesson: