3rd, 4th, and 5th graders Draw from Bones and Shells

Bones and shells are the evidence of the life of an animal.  Handling and looking at these objects requires respect and great care.  In addition, it offers students a chance to discover small details that they usually wouldn't have the opportunity to see.

 In this lesson, students learn that even an object as complicated as a skull or a shell can be translated into related shapes that make up the whole object.  The trickiest part is to translate all that we notice from these curved and textured 3D objects into a drawing on a flat piece of paper.

We discussed how to measure and map the distances between major shapes.

Then we talked about how to draw in the details that we saw.