Importance of Sketching

“A journal is a place for thinking and feeling, for harvesting the moment, the image, the idea, the place you occupy. Don’t wait to paint the perfect picture or sketch; don’t wait for the time when you have time to write the polished essay or poem butrather get down on the pages of your journal those core images, ideas and fragments of experience you are now feeling. Edit or recompose later if you must. Grab images, words, drawings, pressed leaves, dirt, post cards, anything that impresses you and will help you remember the time, place and events you are experiencing and creatively get them into your journal.”

~ William Hammond

This week in Grade 1 we have been spending a lot of time learning new journaling techniques that will help us as we begin our Open Minds adventures. Journalling helps students make sense of what is around them. It is a way for them to write and sketch about what they have seen and what they have learned in a way that helps them to remember what they have learned.

We have been sketching a number of things using a number of techniques and a number of item. 

We began our week by going out into the courtyard and sketching what we see when we look up, down, front and back. 

We had a guest visitor on Tuesday when Ms. Korol brought in her bearded dragon "Spike." We used our sketching knowledge to sketch and label parts of Spike. 

Students were introduced to a quick and easy way to take note of what is in the environment around them. By creating a list of 10 things we see around us students are able to write one word and do a sketch to help commit their surroundings to their long term memory. This is also a useful technique for noticing multi-sensory details in real time. 

On Friday we learned our final sketching technique this week, the one minute sketch. This activity helps students to focus on the finer details in their surroundings. When we are in big open places they can often be overwhelmed at where they should look and what they should draw by focusing on one item for 60 seconds students are able to focus faster at one detail instead of the whole thing. Students can use their 5 senses in their drawing, they can think about what it reminds them off, where they have seen things similar and what they wonder.

    

 We are so excited to practice these sketching techniques at our Open Minds experiences this month.