What Would Picasso’s
Snowman Look Like?
Left to right: Matthew Mularski, grade
one; Madeline Spatafore, grade one;
Emma Stagel, grade one.
Mary Jane Hadley
One cold January day in
western Pennsylvania, I
read my first-grade students the book When
Pigasso Met Mootisse by Nina Laden.
Students thoroughly enjoyed the
antics of the
two comically
exaggerated
characters, a
pig and a cow,
portraying the
artists Pablo
Picasso and Henri Matisse. Through
verbal and visual puns, the author
introduces readers to the artists and
their styles of art. Students saw the
hard black lines and squared-off
shapes in Pigasso’s (Picasso’s) art.
They saw how Mootisse (Matisse)
liked more curvy lines and shapes
and the use of brilliant complementary colors.
We next looked at Picasso’s painting, The Three Musicians. Students
observed how Picasso made the
objects and people look squared or
“cubed.” I told them this style of
Picasso’s art is called Cubism.
Then we
They thought Picasso would looked at
make his snowman with squares, holiday cards
I had received
rectangles, or triangles—shapes that had snow-
with sharp corners. men on them.
Students
observed that these images were like
the snowmen they had made in their
own yards. These images looked real
to them so we called them “realistic-
looking” snowmen. I asked students
“How might a snowman made by
Picasso look?” They thought Pica-
sso would make his snowman with
squares, rectangles, or triangles—
shapes with sharp corners.
Practice
We played a game on the chalkboard
to help students transfer the concept
of making something realistic to
something Cubist. They took turns
coming up to the chalkboard to trace
square templates to build a snowman. They added hats, scarves, eyes,
noses, mouths, and arms, keeping in
mind that this snowman did not have
to look realistic. They used squares,
rectangles, and triangles as much as
possible—squares for eyes, a triangle
for the nose, a rectangle for the scarf,
and so forth.
Making a Cubist Snowman
Students went back to their seats to
carry out their own plans for a Cubist snowman. I had prepared 1" ( 2. 5
cm), 2" ( 5 cm), 3" ( 7. 6 cm), and 4" ( 10
cm) square templates for them to use
