Charley Harper - Space for all Species - Charley Harper Posters

Lesson:

  1. Have you ever seen this poster, or one like it before?  You may have because the artist Charley Harper often makes posters for the Hamilton County Park Board.

  2. Have you ever been to Farbach-Warner Preserve (Colerain and Pool), or another park like it?  What kinds of things of nature have you seen there? (Leaves, birds etc.)  

  3. What kinds of things can you see in this poster?  

  4. What kinds of lines do you see? (Straight, curvey, thin, thick, long, short, jagged. broken, continuous, etc.)  

  5. Are there any patterns in this picture?  

  6. What kinds of shapes do you see?  (Have children come up and point out various shapes.)  

About the Artist: Charley Harper lives in Cincinnati. He decided to become an artist when he discovered that he could draw better than anyone else in the fourth grade. Now, at over 70 years old, Charley Harper "looks, find and then through one of the liveliest games of show and tell in town, he shares what he has discovered."  

Activity:

Pass out construction paper shapes coresponding to objects in the poster. Have students glue shapes on art paper to form their animal/or other object and draw in the details.

Preparation: Ask teacher to supply construction paper in advance in the colors you'll need, and have art paper (plain white or off white) available on day of class.

Cut out shapes out of construction paper, one animal per child.  (May be in art closet)  

Patterns for the following are in the art closet:

owl                 turtle                 frog

lady bug            fox                 butterfly

redbird             rabbit             snake 

deer                 bluebird          racoon

Construction paper colors needed: Green, red, blue, brown, grey or white, black and orange or substitutions as close as possible to these colors.

Optional:  Have the kids glue the shapes to a piece of construction pager or stock paper.  Then cut it all out and stick a magnet on the back.  Sample in art closet.  

© copyright Jennifer Zimmermann