Giraffes Can't Dance!

When it comes to 2nd, 3rd, 4th graders the sky is the limit! They are so eager to learn, they have a great attitude and they absolutely positively love art time! They have worked so hard this year, and over the Christmas holiday I found the book "Giraffes Can't Dance", I loved the message of friendship, and being yourself. It reminded me of all the sweet kids I know at school. I was inspired by some work of a fellow art teacher, and we imbarked on what some called The Impossible. I wanted the kids to bring home something this year that would make their Parent's jaw drop. What better than a large, beautiful, museum quality painting. I hope you all enjoy these, and know how very hard your kids worked on them. Because I think they are awesome!!

We started by reading the story, and together finding the shapes we already know how to draw, that make up a giraffe. We noticed that when Gerald started to dance, he became more human-like and therefore he could dance our favorite dance. We posed like ballerinas around the room, walked like egyptians, and even had a little Saturday Night Fever, whoot whoot!  Look at the different personalities these Giraffes have! Next we painted them with Yellow. We didn't worry too much about staying in the lines because we are cutting these guys out!

 

The next week we split up into thirds and did 10 minute stations. First station was black permanant marker to trace over our pencil drawing.  Next we learned shading and used an orange colored pencil to create a shadow side.  Third we used brown permanant marker for our spots. They just pop off the page!

Next came the moonlit sky. We painted our grass yellow first, then completely covered it with green. Then we used the back of our paintbrushes to scrape of some green to reveal the yellow. This added texture and we were able to learn a new painting technique! Then we painted our sky blue, danced in some purple. Then came our white moon with swirls of moonbeams. Georgeous! Next we cut out the giraffes and glue them on. This has been so fun. I've had so many kids say "I feel like a real artist!" They are just so proud!