Thiebaud Pies

One of the prints in our first grade curriculum is Wayne Thiebaud's "Lemon Merengue Pie." The kids were hooked from the second they walked in the room. I had the painting projected on the smart board, and they all "ooohed and ahhhhed" as they sat on the floor with me. I asked them a bunch of questions like "What do you see? Well, what kind of pie? Why would he paint a piece of pie?" They rambled on and on. I love it! After our discussion I shared a very special book with them, "A Daily Dose of Delicious." This is a book I wrote and illustrated in college. It's about a special garden that grows desserts. 

                             

I had so much fun sharing my work with them. I also have a secret dream of being a children's book author/illustrator someday, so this was a good way to get feedback! They were so complimentary it about made me melt. 

            

After reading the book, I had them head to their seats and we talked about how to go about drawing our own piece of pie. I asked them what shapes they saw in Thiebaud's pie that they knew how to draw already. The pointed out that the top looked like a triangle sitting on two rectangles. So that's what we drew! Then, I set them free to turn their pie into any kind they wanted. We had apple, cherry, chocolate, candy corn, rainbow, etc.

I have learned that you can control how long the lesson goes by the size of paper you give them. So, we kept the pies small and turned them into postcards. That way we got to talk about mail and letters a little bit. They drew stamps and addressed it to themselves at our school. Then i had them write "Wayne Thiebaud Pies" on the letter side so they could explain to someone why they drew a pie. 

          

Who doesn't like talking about something so yummy? I think they left the room on a pseudo sugar high. I've found that kids love to draw when they are drawing something relevant to them. And let's be honest, dessert is relevant to all of us.