Arts Explorer # 6: Illustrating With Scissors

rt Word of the Week: Texture

    The following activity will provide children with the opportunity to display their personal identity and communicate an understanding of the world. 

Step 1: tell children do draw a silhouette on a large piece of chart paper

Step 2: Next, allow children to gather a variety of materials that entail a variety of textures. This step can begin a few days before the art project by going on a nature walk and collecting material from the outdoors. 

Step 3: Encourage children to use the different materials to cover or decorate the illustration of themselves 

Step 4:  Once the children have covered their silhouette, ask children why they chose the different textures of the different body parts

I chose texture to apply to this activity as texture “refers to the surface quality of a work of art” and includes terms such as “rough, bumpy or smooth, hard or soft coarse or fine, wet, sticky, dry, dull or shiny etc” (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009, p. 144). Thus, children can use the various texture to apply to their illustrations and gain an understanding of the different textures that are found on our body. This activity will also provide children with the opportunity to become aware of their body parts and the different textures that encompass it. I hope to incorporate this activity in my teaching perhaps when I do a unit of the human body. 

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children (6^th Ed.).

            Belmont, CA: Delmar.