Elementary

The Essential Question
How can motion be shown while drawing figures?

Objective
Students will draw stick figures to suggest movement.

Materials
12 x 18" (30.5 x 46 cm) white paper, fine-tipped black markers, colored markers

Procedures
1. Discuss and view images of various body poses (e.g., hands in the air, dancing, jumping, sitting).
2. Have students try a few poses, and ask them to note where their arms and legs are bent or straight. How can they depict those poses and others in a drawing?
3. Students use lines and circles to draw figures in various sizes and many different poses. Ask students to fill the entire paper with figures.
4. Students outline the figures with a colored marker. Students choose another color and outline the figures again, repeating the process until the paper is filled. Remind students to overlap lines that meet.
5. Students can use a variety of colored markers to fill in the negative space between the figures. (See work-in-progress example on the front of this card.)

Assessment
Did students create a sense of movement in their stick figure composition?

Wendy Libby is an art teacher at Fruit Street School in Bangor, Maine.