100 Languages: Observational Drawing

Maybe one of the languages easiest to use in a Reggio Emilia inspired classroom is observational drawing, also called graphic representations, where children draw what they see.

What is observational drawing?

Observational drawing is a technique where you create graphic representations of objects, or scenes by directly observing them in real life. Instead of relying on memory, imagination, or pre-existing images, observational drawing involves closely studying the visual characteristics of the subject and translating those observations onto paper.

How can you use observational drawing in your classroom?

Observing objects or specific scenes can teach us a lot about a certain topic or subject. This language is a great starting point for any project you’d like to explore in the classroom or even to discover new interests of your children. You can take the children outside to observe scenes in the real world, think about nature, the different people and vehicles passing by at school, or even the architecture around the school. Or you can bring certain objects into the classroom, like natural materials, or other materials they’re interested in.

These graphic representations can be used for future documentation of the children's learning journey. When their knowledge about a certain topic grows, their observations become more detailed, showing understanding of specific attributes of the objects, leading to clearer graphic representations. It’s a great way to document their growth in understanding.

What materials do you need?

If you’re planning on using the representations for documentation it’s important to use quality drawing materials. This will make it easier to remove backgrounds and have high solution drawings in your documentation. What I like to use is the following:

• 150 gram paper
• Black marker or fine liner

What skills do children learn?

A big takeaway of observational drawing is eye for detail. By asking them what else do you see? Or is this area also blank on the leave? The children are encouraged to look for small details, and make graphic representations as accurate as possible. They start to understand an object is not just its outlines, they’ll have new discoveries which will lead to new questions. For example when looking at leaves. The children will find the veins in the leaves that keep the leaf in shape, which can lead to new questions and new discoveries. When looking in the mirror they realize they have eyebrows, and some of us have wreckless or other spots on our face.

Role of the teacher

As a teacher it’s our responsibility to encourage the children and to guide them to a better understanding. We can do this by asking questions of what the children are representing, what other things they notice in the object or scene, or why they choose to represent something a certain way. Children will not give you a clear representation at their first try, but by encouraging them they will get a better eye for detail. By listening to their explanations you will get a better understanding of what they understand and what they tried to represent and can direct them within their graphic representations.

An example of observational drawing to find out what the children are interested in?

At my school we actively looked for the interests of our children at the beginning of the school year. These interests would lead us to a year long project that would evolve along the way. At the start of the school year I would take my children outside to different areas on the school grounds and ask the children to draw what they saw. When listening to their conversations and analyzing their graphic representations, it was evident that insects were everywhere. From small dots around the school shrine in Thailand, ants finding their way to a dead bug and butterflies sipping from the flowers. We eventually had a project where we explored the differences between moths and butterflies.