5th Grade Picasso Inspired Cubist Portraits

Woman in Blue Hat-Picasso

I adapted this lesson from the Fairview Elementary School's Artsonia site that I posted before this one.
This year I decided to try something new and focus the 5th grade curriculum around a theme. I really wanted to focus on depth rather than breadth and though that after 5 years of elementary school art (and 3 art teachers later) that they already had had a sufficient amount of diverse experiences in mediums, styles, artist, and cultures, and though that having a specific focus and really studying it in depth might be a good culminating elementary art experience for them. I chose Spanish artists for this years theme and we began by studying Joan Miro. We just finished a unit on Pablo Picasso and we're now starting one on Salvador Dali. Each unit uses different mediums ad has a different style, but at the end of the year I'm going to plan some kind of activity where they can compare and contrast the different artists and their styles.

This post is about Picasso and the way he created cubist portraits.

The lesson took about 7 sessions and here's how it broke down.

Day 1: Cooperative group activity to look through various books and find and share 5 facts about Picasso. I then showed a PowerPoint on Picasso, focusing in on his cubist portraits. I then gave them a worksheet with 3 columns and had them draw the basic parts of a face, (the eyes, ears, nose, lips, and hair) in each box using shapes to represent each feature.
Day 2: Practice guided drawing of cubist style face which shows the profile and front view simultaneously. I demonstrated geometric and organic shapes and then had them practice making compositions on 9x12" paper.
Day 3: Students re-drew their compositions on 14x 17"white paper and I demonstrated how to blend oil pastels. Students practiced a bit with the oils before going onto their good paper.
Day 4-6: Students colored in their pieces.
Day 7: They mounted their portraits on construction paper and created a decorative border.

As you probably garnered from the above procedure, I'm really big on practicing first...It cuts down on the "Ms. F. I don't like my work, can I start over?" :)