Texture Monsters

At the beginning of the school year the focus for P1 students is learning about and experimenting with the elements of art, then using that knowledge throughout the rest of the year to inform their work.

This lesson was started after the students played a short game involving different textures. I had a box filled with different materials and labels on the classroom carpet with words like "soft" "hard" "rough" or "bumpy". The students took turns taking an item from the box and deciding which texture word it fit with best.

After our game and discussing how each item felt, I began demonstrating what visual texture is by using a textured plate and rubbing it with crayons. The students practiced doing this multiple times in their classroom sketchbooks as seen below:

When the students finished their texture rubbings, we met back on the carpet and read the book Where The Wild Things Are. As we were reading together, I would stop and ask the students what kinds of textures they could imagine with the different monsters throughout the story.

After reading and discussing the variety of imaginative monsters, the students worked in their sketchbooks to create their own creature with a variety of line and visual texture using crayons, markers, and textured plates.

Here are a few examples of their finished textured monsters. I love the creative results!