Kindergarten India Elephants

IMG_6916The cultural focus this year in art class is Asia, and the Kindergarteners are focusing on the country of India. There is a tradition in India that happens every year called the Elephant Festival. The elephants are painted with beautiful colors and designs. The students learned interesting facts about elephants from India and compared them to elephants from Africa. Did you know that elephants from India are smaller than elephants from Africa? The artists created their own elephants by sponge painting gray paper to create texture that looked like wrinkly elephant skin. They used their painted paper to create these wonderful elephants. Their favorite part was picking out the beautiful jewel for their elephant to wear on it’s head.IMG_6914 IMG_6913 IMG_6911IMG_6910IMG_6889IMG_6888IMG_6887IMG_6871

This project was inspired by the elephant project from the blog ‘Art with Mr. Giannetto.’

Learning Goals:

I can create texture.

I can create a collage.

 

 

Dali’s Elephants

Fifth Graders are finishing up their study of Surrealist artist Salvadore Dali.  We read “Dali and the Path of Dreams” by Obiolis and Subirana – the pictures in the book are gorgeous and really helped my students understand Surrealism.

Dali & The Path Of DreamsMy 5th Graders were intrigued by the long-legged elephant images in the book – and so we had to draw them!

We drew the elephants together, one step at a time – and after a demonstration about value and shading, my students used oil pastel to blend and shade the elephant bodies.  Watercolor for the ground and sky completed their fabulous surreal landscapes.

Surreal Elephants

Surreal Elephants Surreal Elephants Surreal Elephant Surreal Elephant

I am also a new fan of the liquid watercolors that we used on the background – squirt a little of the concentrated watercolor in a dish, add water – viola!  Lots of watercolor for this big painting project!

Liquid Watercolors