How to Draw: A Cow

Step-by-Step way to both fold paper to draw a cow's head and also how to draw
details of the cow's features.

Directions for Drawing A Cow: Fold a square sheet of paper from corner to corner in every direction before drafting the proportions of this cow's head. This simple exercise teaches young students to use basic geometry to draw a cow.

The Cow

by Robert Louis Stevenson

The friendly cow, all red and white,

I love with all my heart;

She gives me cream with all her might,

To eat with apple tart.

She wanders lowing here and there,

And yet she cannot stray,

All in the pleasant open air,

The pleasant light of day.

And blown by all the winds that pass

And wet with all the showers,

She walks among the meadow grass

And eats the meadow flowers.

Craft a Paper Scarecrow Jumping-Jack

      For this little craft, you will need Autumn colored papers in a check, a plaid and four solid colored papers. You will also need 12 brass brads, one set of googly eyes, two buttons, a paint stick, scissors, white glue and one black felt tip marker. 

      Download and print the stencil pattern that I have drawn for the scarecrow Jumping-Jack. Trace and cut the pattern pieces, use a hole punch to clip through the papers at the x markings. Assemble the scarecrow according to the sample shown above. Mount him onto a paint stick or a wooden dowel. I did not string this particular Jumping Jack but you can string him.

•  Here is a web page that describes to visitors how to string Jumping Jacks.

A free Jumping Jack pattern by Kathy Grimm.

More Paper Jumping-Jack Crafts:

• DIY Hilarious Jumping Jack Bugs
• Halloween Jumping Jacks
• Craft a Pirate Jumping Jack
• Antique, French Jumping-Jacks 

Trace, Cut and Paste Developmental Learning Activities

A sampling of trace, cut and paste developmental learning activities coming soon to this blog.

       Trace, cut and paste, developmental learning activities are very popular lessons taught inside preschools, kindergartens and early learning centers. In the early learning center where I teach, students complete at least two of these kinds of exercises per week. The reason for this is obvious to those people who have ever observed the fundamental learning that takes place during any primary school’s curriculum. All young students experience some difficulty in developing the levels of obedience, observation and productivity that are required of them in order to be successful in academic environments. These qualities can be developed over a few short years by a loving, patient, and creative team of teachers (or parents) in order for children to be properly prepared for school.

      I have listed below, the preliminary objectives that educators assign to this type of activity. Very young students take at least an entire year or longer to accomplish these agenda. Ordinarily, art teachers would be expected by the State to qualify activities such as these by presuming that goals/objectives would be attainable within one lesson. This expectation is highly unrealistic for three, four and even five year old students. Most young students will not be able to fulfill all of the objectives concurrently until they have practiced them over and over for many months. The ultimate goal of the exercise is: to teach students to perform perfectly together all of the objectives within the context of the assignment, by the end of their kindergarten year, not by the end of the exercise.  

      Below are the objectives for trace, cut and paste assignments that eventually must be performed concurrently:

• Students will learn to listen and follow directions in the order in which they are given.
• Students will learn to recognize shapes and use their correct names.
• Students will learn to recognize colors and to use their correct names.
• Students will learn about spatial relationships and differences between basic shapes.
• Students will learn how to paste elements in an organized fashion in order to create an image.
• Students will learn how to cut simple geometric shapes accurately with scissors.
• Students will learn how to trace around a simple geometric shape while maintaining that shape’s original proportions.
• Students will learn to recognize and act out basic instructional vocabulary.

More Related Content:

• Ages & Stages: Learning to Follow Directions
• Why Colors and Shapes Matter
• Color and Your Daycare Center
• Preschool Key Developmental Indicators (KDIs)
• Shape and Space in Geometry
• The Geometric World of Young Children
• Creating Better Writers with Preschool Tracing Activities
• Effective Vocabulary Instruction by Joan Sedita (PDF)
  

Paint Fall Foliage With Hugs and Kisses

This picture of Fall foliage was created
entirely with dots.

      This picture was painted with Dot paint markers. Dot paints are frequently purchased for early learning center art activities. These paint bottles have foam tips and are just the right size for little hands to squeeze and paint with. The round shapes of my tree's foliage are actually painted coffee filters that are pasted onto a large piece of blue construction paper after drying. I cut a simple tree trunk from brown construction paper to paste on top of the blue background as well. The blank circular shape is for each child to "carve" their names inside after they have completed the assignment. 

      Because dot painting is so easy to do, it is important for teachers to give young students enough of a challenge when filling in space with their paints. A picture like this will take a preschool student at least forty minutes or more to finish. Teachers may have students complete the foliage on one day and then assemble the picture with additions to the trunk, sky and ground on a second day. In any case, one large dot picture should take a week for three to five year old children to complete nicely.

      Encourage students to fill in all of the spaces. Then give them markers of similar color and demonstrate how to add Capital Xs to every circular shape. This may appear on the surface to be busy work but it serves the purpose of training small motor skills in very young students by virtue of a pleasant activity. Here are a few goals associated with the activity that teachers may wish to include within a weekly lesson plan:

• Color matching
• Writing the Capital letter "X"
• Learning about color families or cool vs. warm colors
• Defining space
• Defining boundaries in space
• Manipulating objects by squeezing and placement
• Recognizing and reproducing geometric shapes
• Teaching science concepts to children: this one would be photosynthesis.
• Learning about additional symbolism given to letters, i.e. hugs and kisses are x's and o's

How to Draw: A Pelican

Draw a pelican from a rhomboid.