Grade 6 Semester 1 Art projects, Middle School Art

One of the lowlights of teaching at my current school is the lack of contact time I have with my Grade 6 classes. I meet with them on average of 70 minutes/week for a semester (18 WEEKS) equaling about 1.5 classes considering I'm on a 12 day rotation schedule... In Egypt my contact time with Grade 6 was either 180 minutes/week for a semester or 90 minutes a week for a year. But then again the Grade 6 in Egypt was around 15 students because that was size of the entire Grade 6...our current Grade 6 had around 90 students. It's all about the numbers.

Below are examples of 4 of the 6 projects we did in a semester.
1. Oil Pastel mood self portraits (color mixing/theory/texture/lines)
2. Printmaking - insect linocuts 
3. Color Pencil fruit drawing (geometric shapes/color mixing/theory)
4. Drawing eyes and mouths (rendering/value/shading)
5. Ceramics (coil/slab/glazing) NOT PICTURED
6. Digital Photography (rules of thiirds/lines/texture) NOT PICTURED

Selected student outcomes (meets standards examples and exemplary examples) :

Insect Project

Hello Artists. I hope everyone is had a great holiday and that you successfully finished your shoe drawings. I look forward to seeing them. Below is the information on the project we will be working on. You will need to come to school to turn in your shoe drawings and pick up paper for your new project, Make sure you bring in your folder. Please do not fold or roll your artwork. If you need help or have any questions or need assistance, please let me know. You can either leave a comment or send me an e-mail

Assignment:
You will look at the list of insects below and I want you to find 4 images of the insects you’d like to draw. Use contour lines to draw the insect. This project will have additional steps after the initial drawing in which we will discuss once you return to Schutz, You may draw your insects in different directions, I choose to make my example of them facing inward towards the center of the paper. The size of the insect should fill up the majority of the square and parts of the insect may be cropped (for example: the wings of my moth and dragon fly were cropped). Do not shade/render or add color to your insects…this first part is strictly a pencil drawing.

Objectives:
Student will demonstrate observational skill
Student will demonstrate contour drawing
Student will demonstrate cropping
Student will learn how to draw insects in sections

Supplies:
13” x 13” paper, eraser, and pencil

Vocabulary:
Contour line- A line which shows or describes edges or outline of a shape or form
Cropping- The removal of the outer parts of an image
Unity-parts of a design working together (example 4 insects)
Proportion-The relation of one object to another in size

Concepts To Be Demonstrated:
Arrange and draw insects using contour lines
Use cropping effectively
Show unity among the insects (example 4 that have wings)
Using correct proportions when drawing the insects
Neatness-your project should be smudge free.

Grading:
5 of 5 concepts demonstrated equals an A
4 of 5 concepts demonstrated equals a B
3 of 5 concepts demonstrated equals a C
2 of 5 concepts demonstrated equals a D
1 or no concepts demonstrated equals an F

If you need to see how to draw an insect in sections click here.

The Steps:
Step 1: Divide your paper into four even sections. Each square should be 6.5" x 6.5" The best way to do this is to mark the top and bottom of the paper at the halfway point (6.5" ) then draw a line down the center using a ruler.

Step 2: Choose an insect from the list below:
Aphid, ant, ant lion, apple maggot, bee, black widow spider, boxelder bug bronze birch borer, cabbage worm, carpenter ant, carpet beetle, centipede, cicada, cockroach, cricket, cucumber beetle, dragonfly, earwig, eastern tent caterpillar, European pine sawfly, firefly, flea, fly, grain beetle, grasshopper, grub, gypsy moth, hornworm, Japanese Beetle, June beetle, katydid, lacewing, ladybug, leafhopper, lice, locust, mantis, mayfly, midge, millipede, mosquito, sawfly, silkworm, sow bug, painted lady butterfly, pantry pest, peach tree borer, pill bug, psyllid, silverfish, slug, springtails, squash bug, squash vine borer, stag beetle, stick insect, termite, thrip, wasp, water stider, water treader, weevil, whirligig, whitefly, winter moth, wireworm, and yellow jacket.

Step 3: Draw the insects.