Here are a few Form Drawing lessons I like to do after the initial traditional introduction to the straight line and curve on the first day of first grade.
Form Drawing allows children to just focus on the correct orientation of the lines to one another, without worry about the additional extra step of sound-symbol correspondence that comes into play with writing Capital Letters.
In the first year of my Grade 1 Ruzuku course, I had a participant tell me mid-year that she had skipped Form Drawing in August & September because she thought it was important to "just get into the content." And then when the children in her group struggled with forming their letters, she realized that FD wasn't optional and extra. It was essential! And she went back and did it.
There are many Form Drawing books and lots of different ways to combine these straight lines. I like Living Lines: Form Drawing Inspiration for Steiner-Waldorf Teachers by Henrik Thaulow and workbooks 1-3 by Angela Lord.
The Three Billy Goats Gruff
retold by Paul Galdone
the upright line
story image: bridge
from Beginning with Form Drawing by Live Education!
Journey to Cahokia: A Boy's Visit to the Great Mound City
by Albert Lorenz
the resting line
story image: earthen mounds
from Creative Form Drawing Workbook 1 by Angela Lord
Another way to experience the resting line could be through forest bathing. Try lying on the ground in nature with your child, staying perfectly straight and being very still. You are still forming a straight line with your body... but how different it feels from the upright gesture of the queen and king!
How Thunder and Lightning Came to Be: A Choctaw Tale
retold by Beatrice O. Harrell
the leaping line
story image: lightning
diagonal lines show action
sparks fly from his heels as Melatha races after the eggs!
I have had students really struggle with the orientation of a diagonal line -- who truly couldn't figure out how to draw it -- so it is worth giving this one its own time. It is very fun to act out being a Leaping Line with your body! Again, you are working with straightness but what a very different feeling compared to the quiet steadiness of the upright and resting lines.
I also like the Tissue Paper Collage lessons in Teaching Art with Books Kids Love: Art Elements, Appreciation, and Design with Award-Winning Books by Darcie Clark Frohardt. We do these as our Form Drawing exercises for the Leaping Line.
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Immersive Experience
Immersive Experience
Immersive Experience
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