1st & 2nd Graders Create Abstract Animal Drawings

These pictures are examples of how the children in first and second grade are beginning to create abstract drawings. So far, the children have determined that "if a picture doesn't look like anything" or "the parts of a thing are put in the wrong places," the picture is abstract. In picture number one, the student drew a whale in detail and as realistically as possible. In picture number two, the student moved two parts of the animal to a different place on the whale's body. In picture number three, the student drew even more abstractly as she began to like this style of representation. Finally, in picture number four, the abstracted whale takes on a unique form as it no longer resembles a whale.

Students also recognized similarities and differences in their abstract drawings to petroglyphs and prehistoric representations of animals. Some children concluded that the people who drew petroglyphs long ago may not have been trying to draw the animal perfectly but instead were either drawing how they felt about the animal or drawing the spirit of the animal.

Students also worked on large paper to practice drawing abstractly, observe how others draw, and determine how these "petroglyph-like" pictures run into each other or overlap.

Students plan to use these drawings in combination with collage techniques of the animals' habitats to create

14x14-inch multi-media panels. The panels are intended to hang at a "100 Years in Manoa" exhibit during the second semester of the 2007-2008 school year.