Half art lesson, half free-choice project, pre-historic fish has been very popular with my fourth grade students. Based on the book Raptors, Fossils, Fins & Fangs by Ray Troll and Brad Matsen, I photocopied pages from the book plus created a few of my own drawing aids and set out lots of supplies. The kids gobbled it up. We talked about drawing a main fish and filling up the paper with smaller fish. I bought beautiful colored illustration paper (the kind with texture) exclusively for this project. The colored paper really seemed to ignite the children’s imagination. They used metallic colored pencils, metallic oil pastels, chalk and regular colored pencils.
Fourth Grade Efforts!
These are terrific! I love all the colors and textures.
Love it! You have some gifted students!
Beautiful colours and lots of movement! Choice of paper definitely makes a difference.
I am giving you a stylish blog award! I love your art ideas. My kids have never had so much art bc of you!
http://mrswheelerfirst.blogspot.com/2011/02/thanks-everyone.html
I am can’t wait to try this with my third graders. The only elementary I have is Kinders and 3rd. My 3rds will love the creativity and freedom of this lesson, plus they love it when I bring literature into the art room. Thanks.