Expand an Image Art Project

I have a few artists in my class this year.  These guys love to draw.  I mean, they spend their free time looking up pictures on the internet and in books and re-creating them.  I was thinking this activity would go over great with them.  But, of course, the day I had planned on completing the activity, most of my artists were absent!  Luckily, even the kids who struggle with drawing were successful and seemed to enjoy themselves in the process!

I wrote the process on the board and had the kids take turns reading the steps before we began.

I brought some old National Geographic Magazaines with me to summer school.  The kids went through and found a picture of something they were interested in.  They cut out one small picture.  Some of the topics they chose were elephants, pizza, and penguins.

Then, using a web, we brainstormed as many related ideas as possible.  I did a sample one on the board, then had the kids do the same for their topic. 

Here is my sample:

And here are the webs my kids came up with:

Next, we cut a small piece of the picture out of the magazine and pasted them on construction paper.  The kids then were responsible for expanding their image and making a picture to fill up the page that involved as many ideas from their web as possible.

I had kids of a variety of levels completing this project and they all did great.  My most advanced student completed all steps on her own whereas my beginner students needed some adult help. To help with the brainstorming process, we asked the kids questions about their topic such as, "where can you eat pizza?" "what does a penguin eat?" etc.  Drawing can also be a struggle for some kiddos, so I tried to make it easier, by making sample drawings for them to copy and breaking the picture down into different shapes.  For instance, the penguin has a circle for a head, triangle for a nose, oval for a body, etc.

This activity worked on coming up with brainstorming, details, associations, and fine motor all at once. I love a good multi-tasking activity like this one! 

Also, if you haven't already, Like Autism Tank on Facebook.  I will be having some give-aways and promos for the rest of the summer that are only shared with Facebook Followers!