A Real Scream

Description: Drawing on black paper

Objectives: Students practice a subtractive method of drawing and feel secure in expressing their feelings.

Author: Kristin, edit by Blair

Grade level or Target Age Range: Preschool to middle school

Sample, Historical Art Examples, and References: Edvard Munch, Norway

Vocabulary: Contrast, Motion, Expressionism

Materials: White oil pastels, white crayon, or chalk, and black construction paper

Anticipatory Set: Do students sometimes feel like making a face when they feel a certain way, but think twice? What might a face look like for a particular emotion?

Demo/Directions:

1. Introduction. Have students pass out materials, including slips of paper with different emotions written on them.
(5 minutes)

2. Students are to act out the emotion they received without making a sound, to see who can guess the emotion correctly and be the next person to mime.
(5 minutes)

3. Show students an example of Edvard Munch’s work and review the historical significance of project.
(5 minutes)

4. Demonstrate how to make a drawing after a particular emotion. Students are to pair up and each take turns facially expressing an emotion while the other sketches the partner’s face in pencil (as chalk and pastels are hard to erase).
(10 minutes)

5. Show students how to repeat lines to show movement. Have them finish pencil drawings by coloring them in with chalk and pastel, finally.
(2 minutes)

6. Have students collect materials at the end of class.
(5 minutes)

Suggested Reading: The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein