Primary Self-Portraits and Machinery Drawings

I started out the year with the Primary students (1st grade) drawing small, quick self portraits. One kid drew himself as a pirate! lol.

Child's drawing of a group of people labeled "The Primary Class," with "self portraits" written beside it, on a red background, resembling charming self-portraits.

The 4/5s (4th/5th graders mixed) looked at gears and drew them from observation.  I also had pictures of gears and machinery for them to look at.  I showed them basic steps to add shading and value.  After they had drawn 3+ gears, I told them that we would be turning them into inventions.  We had things like a cupcake maker or lego sorter!  We read the Scholastic Art magazine about Leonardo DaVinci’s sketches and viewed pictures of his inventions.

A collection of assorted metal gears and rings placed in a transparent container.

Sketch of a mechanical gear system on gray paper with a pink sticky note in the top left corner containing handwritten notes, resembling detailed machinery drawings.
Pencil sketch of a mechanical system featuring multiple gears connected by belts in an intricate arrangement.
A pencil sketch of gears

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5 Comments

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  1. I love these gear invention drawings! Great idea. I have the same problem formatting pictures. They are all over the place when I'm trying to keep them organized. So I've been using picnik.com when I want to display a group together.

  4. Marcia, after you log onto picnik, there is a whole folder to the right of “upload” for creating collages for up to 4 photos for a free account. You can do multiple photos for about $25 a year. Hope this helps!