We're Going on a Hidden Safari!

What animals come to your mind when you think of a safari?  Maybe a lion? A zebra? A monkey? A tiger? A giraffe?  What variety of animals we would see if we were to go on an African safari!  Well, we did go on a safari in art class, come along with me as I share what we discovered on our hidden safari adventure! :)  In this lesson project we learned about warm and cool colors that make up our color wheel.  Warm colors would include: reds, oranges, and yellows; we associate warm colors to something warm like a fire.  Cool colors would include: greens, blues, and purples; we associate something cool like water.  So to begin our work with warm and cool colors in our safari project, we first needed to make our "special glasses" to view our hidden animals!  To do this, we made a cut-out of a pair of glasses made out of construction paper.  To make them "special" we attached red cellophane (notice, it is red!..a warm color!) to act as our colored lenses.  The next part of the project was to choose an animal to draw on an 8 1/2 x 11 white piece of paper.  I chose a giraffe, because it is one of my favorite animals! :)  To make it a more interesting time of drawing and a great time to work our brains and concentration, we drew our animal using the upside down contour drawing technique. It made us look at the details in the animal as we drew it, and was a drawing concept that was not common to us, but one that you just do the best you can in! :)  Another aspect we included was that we drew our animal lightly with a sky blue colored pencil (notice, it is blue!..a cool color!) Once I drew my giraffe and a tall tree next to him to balance the drawing, I turned it right side up and my drawing was on it's way to being complete!  To incorporate the "hidden" aspect of the project, I then covered my giraffe with different patterns and designs using warm colored pencils: red, orange, yellow-orange, yellow, pink, and red-violet.  I made sure that the warm colors covered up my cool colored giraffe so it was hard to see it when looking at it.  Something is going to happen that has to do with these specific colors I used that is really neat once I'm all done with this safari animal!  To complete it, I framed it, and posted three clues/facts about giraffes on an index card for viewers to guess my hidden safari animal!  Now, for the exciting part...using the "special glasses!"  Once you put on the red glasses, the red acts as a filter to the warm colors of the designs and patterns on the paper, and brings out the cool color...my blue giraffe!  How cool is that?! :)  (I posted a zoomed-in picture for you to see how the drawing looks viewed through the red special glasses!)

For an extension activity, I would have the students get in groups, and we will pretend we are going on a safari in Africa as a class!  I will have each group use a piece of poster board to show with words or pictures the aspects of our field trip safari.  I will have them discuss as a group what animals we would come about during the journey, what safety precautions we would need to keep in mind, food we would bring, how we would travel, and other ideas they may want to share.  Once each group is finished brainstorming and have created their poster, I will have them share it with the class.  I think this would be a fun way for the students to use their bright minds and prior knowledge to come up with some great ideas to think about and discuss, what a class adventure in an African safari would be like! :)

Do you see the giraffe's head through the special red safari glasses?! :)

Eric Karle Inspired Collage

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?...

The above title just makes me smile as I reminisce reading it to my little brother when he was little, and before I knew it, he was reading that great book back to me!  Eric Karle is the excellent author of this book, as well as another one of my favorites, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  His artistic talent shines through his illustrations of his books, as the color wheel is arranged on the pages that are eye-catching and exciting!  This project we were able to experience Eric Karle’s style of painting to create our own story page.  First, we drew a rough sketch of what we had in mind for what our storyline was going to be for our story page.  We painted different colors of paper, in which the art room was all around spreading colors of the rainbow!  Different techniques were used to distribute the paint on the paper, as well as using different tools to show texture (a comb, the end of the handle of a paintbrush, or texture stencils).  We set the 12X18 sheets of paper we painted on the drying racks to dry.  Once the drying was complete, the next step was to start cutting out the objects, animals, or anything else that may be in your scene.  Sharing was huge and key for this project!  As a class we were able to show kindness and teamwork as we shared our different colored painted pieces with one another.  If one needed some green in their project, someone else that painted a green paper was more than welcome to share it!  We then had the opportunity once our pieces were cut out, to organize them on a piece of 12X18 construction paper that was used as the background.  Gluing was the next step!  I also added details with my permanent marker and crayons for the turtle’s shell and  eyes. 

When I was completed with securing everything down, I was able to make my story page come alive by adding the dialogue between the turtle and ladybug!  My storyline is about friendship, and the importance of encouraging one another in the good times and the bad times.  The patient Turtle comes alongside different animals in my imagination of a story, and shares encouraging words, and shows what a true friend is.  So for this page that I made, the patient Turtle is giving encouragement to the kind Ladybug with the following dialogue…

“That’s what friends are for,” shared the patient Turtle.

“You’re absolutely right,” the kind Ladybug replied.

“Being with true friends not only puts a smile on my face, but on my heart as well,” the patient Turtle declared.    

Completing this Eric Karle project made me realize how truly fun it is to use your imagination.  When Eric Karle goes about creating his storylines, he thinks about creativity, and enjoys doing what he does in the process!   This project is one I am definitely going to consider doing with my own class someday! J

As an extension activity for this project, we could make our story collages into one “outrageous book!”  We would put every student’s story page they made into a book, which would definitely make it outrageous, because of the variety and creativity that went into each of them.  After the book is made, the class could act out the stories to incorporate collaboration and fun to see what each of their classroom’s peers made for their story!