Better Late…Than Never!

Georgetown artists wrapped up the school year with some pretty cool projects inspired by our study of African art and culture.  Before the summer slides away….here are a few of our favorites.

Fifth Grade African animal drawings on indigo dyed backgrounds with chalk Andikra symbols. Fifth graders got to select any African animal they wanted to draw, so this project was a hit!

Second grade tropical birds – plus a color and pattern review.

First grade printed and colored Kente Cloth with some toothy crocodiles lounging on top.

Fourth grade model magic African amulets painted with metallic paint.

Third grade jazzy African zebras with printed borders.

Kindergarten African zebras. Color, pattern, and cuteness – these fun zebras have it all!

Zebras – With a Twist

As a final wrap up to our African Cultural study, my third graders created these sweet little zebras.

We talked about why zebras are so beautifully marked (so predators can’t focus on an individual zebra to hunt in the herd) and looked at zebra patterns.  We drew our zebras on 9×12 tagboard, breaking them down into shapes – rounded rectangle body, triangle head – and traced around large tongue depressors for the legs.

Third Grade Zebra

The room was absolutely quiet as they filled in their black zebra patterns!  We added color with bright highlighter markers, cut them out, and fringed bright tag for the mane and tail.

Last step – printing a “zebra” border with cardboard dipped in tempera.  Aren’t they fun?!

Third Grade Zebra-Printing

Third Grade Zebras Third Grade Zebras Third Grade Zebras Third Grade Zebras Third Grade Zebras

Second Grade Giraffes

Second Grade artists have been working on these oh-so-cute giraffes this week.  We drew them with big permanent markers and added color to the giraffe with chalk, rubbing it in with a q-tip (this was way more fun than using our fingers!).  We added a blue chalk background, rubbing it in with a cotton ball, and bits of raffia for the giraffe’s mane.

This project was our introduction to this year’s  African culture unit – but the giraffes were so much fun, we may do them again next year too!

Second Grade Giraffe Second Grade Giraffe Second Grade Giraffe Second Grade Giraffe Grade 2 Giraffes

Grade 2 Giraffes Grade 2 Giraffes

I switched it up with my second group of kiddos, and we did a watercolor background – I think I like the contrast between the chalk and watercolor better.

Second Grade Giraffes Second Grade Giraffes Grade 2 Giraffes