Fourth & Fifth Grade Abstract Designs

Fourth and Fifth grade students are finishing their sketchbook designs.  This lesson comes from Mona Brooks "Drawing with Children" book and she calls it "A Unique Drawing Experience." I adapted it with my own set of directions so that students could review the elements and principles of design, but the basic idea is that students listen to a set of directions and follow them.  The first direction I gave students was to draw four straight lines from one edge of your paper to another edge.  This is a great lesson because even if all students follow the same direction, all of the drawings are unique.  A great discussion to have at the beginning of our art year - how everyone draws differently!  When students are finished, we glue the design to a piece of construction paper, and it becomes the cover of our sketchbooks.