Drawing Center

The Drawing Center ~An Overview~

By now you probably realize that TAB in most configurations is very “Center” oriented. This post is a collection of past posts and the ways my Drawing center has been set up in various years.

The Drawing Center contains a variety of mark making materials and resources. This is always the first center to open at the beginning of the year and the most frequently used center.

The Drawing “Center” in 2020-2021

With Covid completely closing our school and putting us online 100% from March 2020 until April 2021, we did spend a lot of our time doing basic drawing activities and challenges. Students were limited to what they had at home for most of the year. I did send home “Art Kits” to anyone that needed/wanted to get one. They included some colored pencils, markers, basic pencil and some oil pastels.

Once we were back in the classroom on a Hybrid basis, kids had access to a few more things, but I had to individually hand them out as asked for and have them go into a “de-contamination” box before they could go back into circulation. This was fine with a small group but would not work for usual pre-Covid class sizes.

Drawing in 2015

The drawing center is always opened first every year and every new semester. It has the basics, like pencils, pastels and markers in plastic tubs that can be taken to the tables. Laminated vocabulary picture word cards, that are specific to drawing, are posted on the cupboards along with center “menus” and samples of student work.

Rulers and the main pencil sharpener is here. I bought a type that is supposed to handle colored pencils as well as graphite. I have replaced the blade, and this one is on its second year. We also have lots of hand sharpeners in the pencil boxes. So the electric one gets surprisingly little use.

For resources we have laminated photo reference pictures and lots of how to draw books. In addition to the typical how to draw books, I have binders of laminated pages that I have printed from the internet. Laminated calendar pages serve as colorful reference photos. I also have a box of still life objects. At this time, I wish I had some display shelves to put them on because kids don’t use them much, since they aren’t very visible.

The nearby walls are covered with vocabulary cards, student work and other information about drawing.

All my centers are set up on the many counter tops that enclose my small room. Students take the materials they want to the nearest table.