Mudge Directed Drawing: How-To

Hey, y’all!  I’ve officially survived the first two weeks of school.  Last week we really started to dig into our curriculum.  In reading, we did our Henry and Mudge unit with a focus on retelling the plot and analyzing characters.  I like to start with simple texts at the beginning of the year so that we can really understand the comprehension skills. And I knew I wanted to pair it with a Mudge directed drawing!
Well, I’ve been really into directed drawings lately.  Joelle and I did a bunch over the summer and she just loved them to pieces, so I figured my kids would too!  I don’t have a lot of tips when it comes to directed drawings.  If you aren’t comfortable with drawing then I would definitely check out First Grade Blue Skies’ pack (HERE)!  She is really great at communicating step by step instructions!  Anyway, I knew that I wanted my students to use character traits to describe Mudge.  So, I decided to teach my students how to draw our favorite dog!
I get a lot of questions about how I teach directed drawings.  I just go step by step with my students.  I explain what I am doing and show them using my document camera.  Here are the steps I used to draw Mudge:
I think what I love the most is seeing how students interpret the directions and how they make the drawings their own!
I think it’s important to realize that all students are different and not everyone sees things the way you do.  As you can see below, there is a lot of room for individuality :).  While I love a pretty finished product, I always appreciate the effort that everyone puts forth.
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Hi, I'm Amy

Hey, y’all! My name is Amy Lemons and I am passionate about providing students with both engaging and effective standards-based Math and ELA lessons.

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11 Responses

  1. So well done! They are adorable and so student created. Love this activity. My students always adore your ideas and creations. Thank you for sharing your talents.

  2. I love this! I like doing things like this because it helps my students realize how important it is to listen! Their listening skills are improved because when their drawing isn't like mine they recognize it was because they weren't listening. Can't wait to do this one with my second graders 🙂

  3. These are just down-right ADORABLE!!! Thank you for sharing and a HUGE thank you for your printing tricks on Periscope! You are a GENIUS!!! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! :D. PS. Hope that your headache is better! 😀

  4. I love Henry and Mudge and so do my students!! Thank you for this idea! We are going to be reading Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night in the next couple of weeks and I love that you have shared an activity that includes a directed art lesson (another goal of mine is to incorporate more art into my weekly lessons) Thank you for sharing!